Any person who has been awarded the military service award known as the meritorious service medal may apply for special motor vehicle license plates for any motor vehicle such person owns, either solely or jointly, other than an apportioned motor vehicle or a commercial motor vehicle licensed in excess of twenty-four thousand pounds gross weight. Any such person shall make application for the special license plates on a form provided by the director of revenue and furnish such proof as a recipient of the meritorious service medal as the director may require. The director shall then issue license plates bearing letters or numbers or a combination thereof as determined by the advisory committee established in section 301.129^*, with the words “MERITORIOUS SERVICE” in place of the words “SHOW-ME STATE”. Such license plates shall be made with fully reflective material with a common color scheme and design, shall be clearly visible at night, and shall be aesthetically attractive, as prescribed by section 301.130. Such plates shall also bear an image of the meritorious service medal. There shall be an additional fee charged for each set of meritorious service license plates issued under this section equal to the fee charged for personalized license plates. There shall be no limit on the number of license plates any person qualified under this section may obtain so long as each set of license plates issued under this section is issued for vehicles owned solely or jointly by such person. License plates issued under the provisions of this section shall not be transferable to any other person except that any registered co-owner of the motor vehicle shall be entitled to operate the motor vehicle with such plates for the duration of the year licensed in the event of the death of the qualified person.