A Springfield veteran who played a prominent
role in persuading state officials to offer special Silver Star
license plates has received notice that his plates have been
revoked.
On April 4, Illinois Secretary of State Jesse
White signed orders of revocation notifying Joe Wilkins, a retired
college professor and political consultant, that he could no longer
use the Purple Heart and Silver Star plates issued to him by the
state in 2000 and 2001 respectively. The revocations were justified
because “the registration was obtained by the submission of
fraudulent or erroneous information . . .” according to the
orders.
Wilkins had done a disservice to other
veterans, White said in a statement issued by press secretary David
Druker.
“Anyone who tries to benefit from the
heroic acts of others does a disservice to all who serve and who
were honored for their heroic deeds,” White said.
Wilkins’ attorney did not respond to a
request for comment.
The decision to revoke Wilkins’ license
plates came in response to an Illinois
Times investigation published last
week, Druker said. IT’s story revealed that military archives had no
record of certain medals Wilkins claimed. Furthermore, the officers
whose names appeared on the documents Wilkins presented to obtain
the plates told IT their signatures had been forged.
Wilkins had been influential in persuading
White to press Silver Star plates. The General Assembly had
authorized the issuance of Silver Star plates as early as 1989, but
the state had never pressed the plates due to the low number of
qualified motorists. The smallest batch of plates is usually 850,
Druker said, and officials knew Illinois would probably never have that
many veterans awarded the nation’s third highest military medal.
But a few veterans prevailed upon White to press the plates.
“I think there were several people who
had done so,” Druker said, “and Wilkins was one of the
more prominent ones.”
In a 2003 interview, Wilkins told IT that he was the
person who had persuaded White to press Silver Star plates.
The special tags, displaying the letters SV,
became available in November 2000, and Wilkins received his on Jan.
4, 2001, Druker said. Beside the SV, his plates displayed the
number 1.
The state has issued approximately 195 sets of
Silver Star plates.
In February 2000, Wilkins had been issued
another set of special license plates, this one featuring the
Purple Heart with Oak Leaf cluster, indicating two Purple Heart
medals.
Military archives have no record of
Wilkins’ receiving a Silver Star or Purple Heart. Last week,
he told the State Journal-Register that he had legitimately received the medals and
had recently filed Freedom of Information Act requests to verify
his claims. However, the National Personnel Records Center in St.
Louis — the official repository for military records —
does not require veterans to go through the FOIA process to obtain
their own records.
This article appears in Apr 7-13, 2005.
