Each of the 50 states in the nation offers a Purple Heart specialty license plate for veterans who have been awarded that medal. Washington, D.C. now offers that option for its resident Purple Heart medal recipients, thanks to the efforts of a 2005 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy.
“We live here,” says Captain Eric Rudberg ’05, U.S. Army, Retired. “The power of the government is here. These are the people who decided to send people to combat. But I think it’s important for us to show the cost of war.”
Rudberg was awarded the Purple Heart medal after serving two tours in Iraq. He was injured while on a dismounted patrol when shrapnel from an improvised explosive device struck him in the leg. “And then a truck bomb drove up to the house that we were living in, blew that up, and there was a pretty large firefight,” Rudberg says. “During that firefight, out of the 17 of us, 11 of us got injured, but we got evacuated. And we didn’t lose any soldiers that day.”
Familiar with other states’ use of the Purple Heart logo on awardees’ license plates, Rudberg asked for one when he applied for a D.C. license plate a few years ago. But although D.C. had specialty tags for veterans, including disabled veterans, the capital of the United States didn’t have the Purple Heart option offered by all 50 states.
Rudberg set out to change that, emailing all the members of the D.C. City Council. “That kind of got the ball rolling,” Rudberg said. “In the spring of ’25, the Council members brought the amendment to the board, and then it kind of got going.”
The D.C. Council approved the new tag. “We offer a number of specialty plates to veterans currently, today,” said Gabriel Robinson, director of the D.C. Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). “But with work from the mayor, the Council, my team here at the DMV, and the support of many veterans in the city and around this region, we thought it was best that we also add this additional specialty plate, to honor those who may have made the supreme sacrifice or those who are wounded as well in the line of duty.”
The plate was unveiled on Aug. 8—the day after Purple Heart Day, which is Aug. 7.
Fittingly, Rudberg was issued the very first tag. He had it less than a day before it drew lots of attention.
“I got my plate yesterday, and already three or four people have stopped me and talked to me about it, asking me what the plate is and how we got it and what it means,” Rudberg said the day after receiving the plate. “I think it’s fantastic.”
The Purple Heart tag is available to Purple Heart medal recipients and their surviving spouses. There’s a one-time fee of $10, which goes to the D.C. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Source: NBC4 Washington
