Seattle Home Depot offers reserved parking for veterans

New signs have popped up in the parking lot of a Home Depot store in South Seattle. It says simply, "reserved for US Veterans."

Three spaces have been set aside for vets, and no special decal or identification is required.

Navy vet Daryl Akkerman parked in one Tuesday.

"It's about time," the 22-year Army veteran told KIRO 7.

His buddy Ken Harrison served in the Army.

"I think it's wonderful," Harrison said.

Both are proud of their military service. During his 22 years, Akkerman did two tours in Vietnam. When he got home, he remembers there wasn't much of a homecoming.

"I got off the plane and they just shunned you," he recalled. "They wouldn't even talk to you, nobody would even look at you, even."

That's why a simple reserved sign with an American flag on it moved him.

"You can smile inside and say, 'Hey that's for me because of what I did.'"

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