A REAL ATTENTION GRABBER : MEDAL DESIGNATION ON MAN'S LICENSE PLATE SIGN OF HEROIC EXPLOITS.

Byline: Jim Schultz Scripps-McClatchy Western Service

Jim Swett has gotten only one traffic ticket since the end of World War II, but he's been pulled over by curious California Highway Patrol officers more times than he can remember.

It seems they all want to get a closer look at him and his eye-catching license plate.

Notoriety can at times be a ``damn nuisance,'' Swett said.

The 76-year-old Trinity County man is one of 174 living winners of the Medal of Honor - the nation's highest military honor for service above and beyond the call of duty - and his license plate reflects that special distinction.

The license plate affixed to his 1995 Chevrolet Blazer reads: ``Congressional Medal of Honor,'' and it also designates him as the 18th-oldest living member of that hallowed club.

Swett, a Seattle native who grew up in the San Mateo region, has been quietly living in tiny Trinity Center for the past 13 years with his wife of 52 years, Loie.

A former U.S. Marine Corps pilot, Swett, who also has two Purple Hearts, six Distinguished Flying Cross medals and 21 Air Medals, said 30 minutes of combat over the Florida group of the Solomon Islands during World War II changed his life forever.

A member of the U.S. Marines Fighting Squadron 221, also known as the Fighting Falcons, Swett, then a 22-year-old lieutenant, was flying an F-4F Wildcat when he had his first taste of war near Guadalcanal.

His squadron, ordered to intercept 150 Japanese Zeros and dive bombers, shot down 37 planes and lost eight with all but one pilot rescued.

Lt. Swett, who had to contend with U.S. anti-aircraft fire at the same time during the dog fight, shot down eight Japanese dive bombers - seven of them in the first 15 minutes - before his own plane was shot down and crashed in Tulagi Harbor.

``God was with me in that cockpit,'' said Swett, who only suffered facial cuts from his plane's shattered windshield.

Swett was awarded the Medal of Honor for his valiant effort and it was presented to him by Maj. Gen. Alexander A. Vandegrift.

Swett, who also saw action at Iwo Jima and Okinawa, shot down 17 enemy planes during the war, was again shot down in July 1943 near New Guinea and was forced to spend four days in a rubber raft, living on chocolate bars and coconuts, until he was finally rescued by natives.

His comfortable two-story home is filled with photographs of him and various military and political dignitaries, as well as combat paintings and war souvenirs.

Photographs of Swett with former Presidents Franklin Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon and Bush are among the many treasured mementos decorating his walls.

Swett, who said he almost daily receives fan mail and requests for his autograph, said he doesn't feel like a hero.

``I don't like the word,'' he said. ``It describes something that really isn't true.''

After all, he said, he was only doing his job.

But, fame does have its perks, he said, even though a CHP officer near Susanville didn't cut him any slack when he pulled him over in the mid-1980s and gave him a ticket for speeding.

``No, he certainly wasn't'' impressed with his license plate, he said.

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Photo: Former Marine pilot Jim Swett, 76, of Trinity Center , Calif., shows off the Congressional Medal of Honor, which he received for service above and beyond the call of duty during World War II.

Associated Press