Vet losing Pearl Harbor plates fight

DRAIN, Ore. – Most of all, James Cornell, an 81-year-old Pearl Harbor veteran, misses the waves from other drivers and the “V” for victory sign.

For years until they were stolen, Cornell’s car sported a special “Pearl Harbor Survivor” license plate. Until recently, he was a driving reminder of the event that dragged the United States into World War II.

But in January, while he was vacationing in Lake Havasu, Ariz., someone stole the back plate off his Chevy van. Cornell contacted the Oregon Driver and Motor Vehicle Services office to get another set and learned the state had run out of its supply and was no longer making them.

So he had to settle for a special plate acknowledging his veteran status, but not the Pearl Harbor connection.

It’s just not the same, he said.

Cornell manned a 3-inch gun on the deck of the USS Honolulu the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, when Japanese planes attacked and decimated the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor. The planes flew in so low to drop their torpedoes that Cornell could clearly see the faces of the pilots. Six decades later, Cornell says he still can’t forget that day: 2,300 sailors, soldiers and civilians killed, 1,100 injured, 12 ships sunk or beached and another nine damaged.

Cornell has tried waging a one-man action with the DMV, trying to enlist the help of U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio and state Sen. Floyd Prozanski, but it’s a battle that he’s unlikely to win. The numbers aren’t on his side.

Any group can pay a fee of $10,000 upfront to have the special plates printed, DMV spokesman David House said.

Pearl Harbor survivors did that in 1994, back when the only requirement to keep the plates in production was that 50 people bought or renewed them each year. But the number of Pearl Harbor survivors is dwindling, and by 1999, fewer than 50 were buying the plates, so the state canceled the series. The Pearl Harbor Survivors Association list for 2003 shows 160 survivors still alive in Oregon.

Lawmakers haven’t been able to do much for Cornell because their hands are tied by statute, House said.

Last year, the Legislature passed a law requiring that a minimum of 500 group plates be sold or renewed each year to keep a group plate available.

“We feel terrible,” House said. “We wish we could do something, but we can’t.”

Meanwhile, Cornell is making do with the veteran plate, and he’s placed a white “Pearl Harbor Survivor” sticker beside it on the back of his van.

But he doesn’t get the waves or “V” for victory sign. He also misses the visits from other vets who used to see his license plate and come over to chat.

At 81, Cornell doesn’t know how much longer he’ll be around. He fought off a bout of stomach cancer last year. “I don’t have too long to go to be honored,” he said.