NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — We've got another update on the veteran who lost his driver's license because the state of Tennessee insisted he was not a U.S. citizen even though the law says he is.
He was frustrated and turned to NewsChannel 5 Investigates for help.
We know a lot of you have been following his story and we think you're going to enjoy this update.
On the video, you can hear Jean O'Connor's voice excitedly asking her husband, David, as he walks inside, "Was that it, Dave?"
Then you see David O'Connor walk up to his wife with an envelope and say, "Here it is!"
Jean's reaction?
"Oh my God! Is it really? Open it up and make sure."
David O'Connor was not sure this day would ever happen.
He contacted NewsChannel 5 Investigates afterthe state of Tennessee took away the 77 year old veteran's driver's license because the state said he wasn't a U.S. citizen.
But Jean O'Connor just sent us video she shot when his new Tennessee driver's license arrived in the mail.
You can hear her exclaim in the video as she realized her husband was holding the license.
"Oh my God! It is it. It is it. You already opened it."
You may remember how the Department of Safety canceled his license in early June after O'Connor tried to get a Real ID and showed up with a Canadian birth certificate. But as that birth certificate shows, his parents were both U.S. citizens and that makes him a U.S. citizen too.
However, to the Department of Safety, that didn't seem to matter.
We took O'Connor's plight to the Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security.
We told Jeff Long, "He says he reached out to us because he just wants somebody to help him. Are you pledging you’ll do that?"
Long assured us, "Absolutely."
But weeks later, O'Connor still had no license and was still waiting for that promised help.
So he sued and soon after that federal lawsuit against the state Safety Commissioner was filed, O'Connor got word that the state had backed down and agreed to send him a new license.
In the video Jean O'Connor shot, you can hear her ask David as he holds his new license, "When does it expire?"
"32," he replies.
"32? So it’s an eight year one?" she queries.
"Yep," he says.
And once again, she says, "Oh my gosh!"
Last week, O'Connor told us just how frustrating it had been to be without a driver's license for so long.
"You can’t do nothing by yourself. You have to have somebody take you wherever you wanna go. I'm pretty much stuck," he shared.
So you can imagine then just how big a deal this new license was for O'Connor.
"What’s the first thing you’re going to do today?" Jean asked David in the video after he revealed the license.
Without hesitation, he answered, "Go for a drive!"
And wouldn't you know it? Jean was soon shooting video of her husband standing outside with the car keys.
"So what are you gonna do now?" she can be heard asking him.
He replied, "Going for a drive," and then waved and headed straight for the car parked in the yard.
"Right now?" Jean asked.
"Right now," David said.
She then cautioned him, "Be careful," adding with a little mischievous laughter, "I don’t know if you remember how."
And watching him pull out of the driveway as he waved and then tooted the horn, it was clear that the U.S. Navy veteran-turned -commercial truck driver sure was happy to be back in the driver's seat.
O'Connor still does not have a Real ID.
He had applied for an expedited passport last month, thinking it would help him get his license back. Senator Marsha Blackburn's office had been tracking his application and let him know late this afternoon that it had been approved and was on its way. Now, that passport may help him finally get that Real ID.
PREVIOUS REPORTING ON DAVID O'CONNOR AND HIS TENNESSEE DRIVER'S LICENSE
State of Tennessee tells U.S. Navy veteran he's not an American citizen and cancels his driver's license
Veteran who lost driver's license because Tennessee refused to recognize him as a U.S. citizen gets welcome news
