Veteran 12 25 2014

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35 cents

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2014

VOL. 3/ISSUE 8

State rolling out new military plates Patrick McCallister FOR VETERAN VOICE

patrick.mccallister@yahoo.com

Florida veterans will be rolling in more style come next year. “House Bill 559 (last legislative session), that’s the legislation that allowed us to change the license plates,” Bobby Carbonell, legislative and cabinet affairs director at the Florida Department of Veterans Affairs, said. The Florida Legislature gave the state veterans department authorization to create new special use license plates for recipients of the Combat Medical Badge and veterans in general, along with redesigning existing ones to have images of the military medals and badges. Additionally, the legislation modified the “Korean Conflict Veteran” plate to “Korean War Veteran,” along with dropping “Vietnam Era” to “Vietnam War.” Carbonell said failure to include the Combat Medical Badge when the state introduced other special-use plates with military awards is difficult to explain or justify.

See PLATES page 4

At 106, age just a number for World War II vet Mary Kemper STAFF WRITER

mkemper@veteranvoiceweekly.com

He’s got bright blue eyes, a thick head of white hair and a smile that won’t quit. Quick with a quip, he speaks with a slight impediment, but not because William “Bill” Mohr is 106. Everyone who reaches the age of this Army veteran of World War II gets a lot of attention — and rightly so. Mohr is no exception. He’s had quite a life, with no end in sight in the immediate future. “I enlisted in the Army before the war, because I wanted to be in the Army. My country needed me,” Mohr said Dec. 17, at a luncheon given by Harbor Place, where Mohr and his wife, Josephine, 97, spend half their time each year. Harbor Place provides luncheon and a movie or video each month for the veterans. (Yes, you read that correctly: The Mohrs are still snowbirds, dividing their year between Port St. Lucie and Hatboro, Penn.) Too young for World War I, Mohr was a bit advanced in age for World War II at 34, but definitely held his own. “I was a mortar sergeant,” he said, “firing at targets you couldn’t see.

See 106 page 3

Staff photo by Mary Kemper At 106 years young, William ‘Bill’ Mohr, a World War II Army veteran, still ‘snowbirds’ each year with his wife, Josephine, 97, from their home at Harbor Place, Port St. Lucie, to Hatboro, Penn.


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