Kilmer fights for POW status for family of local vet

OLYMPIA — Dean Gehring was serving in the 2nd Infantry Division during the Korean War when he was taken prisoner during a reconnaissance patrol in enemy territory. He was held in a shack for two days before escaping, and spent over a week travelling through the snow with no food or shelter. By the time he reached allied forces, he was on the verge of starvation, and had to spend 30 days in a Tokyo hospital to recover.

As harrowing an experience as this was, it wasn’t enough to get Gehring a Washington state Prisoner of War License Plate for his car, because the state requires that a prisoner be held at least 29 days to qualify for a POW plate.

After trying for a decade to get the rules changed, Gehring’s family turned to Sen. Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor for assistance.

“It just seemed so obvious to me that we needed a change in the regulations to allow people like Dean to have their service and sacrifice recognized, so I told his family that we would get that law changed,” said Kilmer, who sponsored Senate Bill 6237 to modify the eligibility criteria for prisoner of war special license plates.

Currently, the Department of Licensing issues POW special license plates free of charge to veterans who were held captive for more than 29 days during a period of war. The change proposed by Kilmer will modify the regulations so that any veteran that was held captive and received a prisoner of war medal would be eligible for a POW plate. The bill also allows spouses and other relatives of living or deceased veterans and current service members to purchase any of Washington’s armed forces special license plates.

SB 6237 passed on a vote of 48-0, and will now be sent to the House for consideration. Companion legislation, House Bill 2571 sponsored by Rep. Larry Seaquist, D-Gig Harbor, passed out of the House on a 96-0 vote and has been sent to the Senate.

Although Gehring passed away late last year, Kilmer hopes that his family and other former POWs like him will benefit from a change in the regulations.

“It just makes good sense to allow more people to honor Washington’s service members,” said Kilmer.

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