CHARLOTTE, NC (FOX 46 CHARLOTTE) – At first, it was something she did for her family.
“I joined for my dad but stayed for myself. Every time reenlistment came up, there were no other options for me,” said Gina Danals.
Now, 18 years later, the US Navy Chief has made a career at of serving.
“I joined right out of high school,” said Gina.
On her days off, when she has time to fix up her home, she often drives to Lowes in Monroe. There’s a spot near the front that’s set aside for veterans, just like her.
On Sunday, she said she was walking to her car.
“So when I got up there, I was like, no that’s a note. It was a quick read, and at first, I was like, huh?” said Gina.
Tucked on her windshield was a handwritten post-it note.
“Well maybe it says thank you for your service, I’m in a veterans spot! No, it says you shouldn’t be parking here,” said Gina.
Instead of ‘thank you,’ the note had a slightly different message.
“It says, ‘it’s a veteran parking spot for a reason, for “there” service,” read Gina. “It’s underlined twice.
Gina said, at first she noticed the grammar issue.
“They spelled ‘there,’ T-H-E-R-E,” said Gina.
But then, the message started to sink in because the person who wrote the note had to be looking at her, not her car.
“If they would have judged it based on the car alone, there’s military on the car. So, they didn’t judge it by the car, they had to judge it by my appearance,” said Gina, pointing out her Navy license plate on the front and the Navy sticker on the back.
She said, she posted the note on social media and immediately started hearing from others.
“A lot of my other military friends are like-what, what’s going on here? Surprisingly a lot of them wrote back with the same situation,” said Gina.
She said veterans aren’t all the same. Some are old, young, men and women, but they do have one thing in common. “The thing is, these are the people who we fight for, that’s why I’m not mad. You can get a little frustrated, but this is what we fight for,” said Gina. “They had that freedom to put that note on my car.”
