Nebraska Military and Disabled Veteran License Plates

Nebraska issues four families of military plate and they all run through the same registry, so a veteran does the identity paperwork once. Disabled veteran plates, under 60-3,124. The gate is ten percent. Any veteran discharged or separated with a characterization of honorable or general under honorable conditions who is classified by VA as at least ten percent service-connected disabled may apply. Ten percent is a low threshold by the standards of this catalog, and much lower than the fifty percent Nebraska uses for its recreation permits or the one hundred percent it uses for the homestead exemption. Two features of the plate are worth knowing. Subsection (2)(c) allows any number of motor vehicles, trailers or semitrailers owned by the applicant to be licensed under the section at one time, so this is not a one-vehicle benefit. And subsection (3)(a) provides that no licence plate fee is required for the alphanumeric version. The personalised message version costs forty dollars on issue and forty on renewal, of which seventy-five percent goes to the Nebraska Veteran Cemetery System Operation Fund. Then a live deadline. From January 1, 2026 the design changed. The old plates carrying the inscription "D.A.V." beneath the number are being replaced at renewal with plates carrying the words "disabled veteran", and subsection (1)(a)(ii) provides that the old plates shall not be valid for use on any motor vehicle, trailer or semitrailer beginning on February 1, 2027. A veteran still displaying a D.A.V. plate after that date is unregistered. The replacement happens automatically at renewal, so the veterans most at risk are those whose renewal falls late in 2026. A second version of the disabled veteran plate carries the international wheelchair symbol and serves as a disability parking credential. It needs a separate application and proof of disability under 60-3,113.02, and the disability must be certified as permanent. The rating that gets the plain plate does not by itself get the wheelchair version. Prisoner of war plates, under 60-3,123. Any person captured and incarcerated by an enemy of the United States during a period of conflict, who was discharged or separated with a characterization of honorable or is currently serving, may apply. No fee, any number of vehicles, and free replacement if lost, stolen or mutilated. Note that this section requires an honorable characterization and does not extend to a general discharge. Purple Heart plates, under 60-3,125. Available to any person who has received an award of the Purple Heart from the federal government, with a facsimile of the award and the words "Purple Heart" and "Combat Wounded" on separate lines. There is no fee for the alphanumeric version; the personalised message version is forty dollars, again with seventy-five percent going to the cemetery operation fund. A wheelchair symbol version exists on the same terms as the disabled veteran plate. Military Honor Plates, under 60-3,122.03 and 60-3,122.04, are the branch plates. There is a design for each of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Coast Guard and Space Force and for their reserve components, plus the Air National Guard and Army National Guard; six campaign medal designs for the Afghanistan Campaign Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal, Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, Southwest Asia Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal and Inherent Resolve Campaign Medal; a design bearing the word "veteran"; and a version of that design with the wheelchair symbol. Eligibility reaches serving members and veterans with an honorable or general discharge, and expressly reaches a current or former commissioned officer of the Public Health Service or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration detailed to a branch of the armed forces. These plates cost five dollars a year for the alphanumeric version and forty for the personalised message version, with the proceeds directed to designated recipients including the cemetery fund. A person who ceases to be eligible must surrender them, for a three dollar transfer fee and forfeiture of the remaining annual fee. Every one of these plates requires prior registration with the Department of Veterans' Affairs under 80-414, and the Department of Motor Vehicles verifies eligibility against that registry before issuing. From January 1, 2026 a trust that owns the vehicle may hold a disabled veteran or Purple Heart plate where a designated beneficiary of the trust qualifies. None of these plates is the motor vehicle tax exemption. That is a separate application to the county treasurer under 60-3,189, it covers one vehicle only, and holding a plate does not grant it.