Elena straightened. The wool bit into her shoulders, reminding her to sit up. “Sir, I earned this uniform. I’ll leave it when they pry it off.”
The board’s legal advisor, a major with wire-rim glasses, almost smiled.
The “agsu dress uniform” is not a standard U.S. military or known national uniform. It most closely resembles a typo or phonetic rendering of — the Army Green Service Uniform — which is the U.S. Army’s standard office and formal duty uniform, often mistaken for a “dress uniform” (though the Army’s true dress uniform is the blue ASU).
“Corporal, the board finds you unfit for further service. Permanent disability retirement. Honorable.”
“I have to,” Elena replied, stepping into the trousers. They fit looser now. The deployment had melted ten pounds off her. She tucked in the shirt, then fumbled with the brass buttons on the coat. Each one clicked into place like a small, final decision.
“I’m still in it,” she said. “That’s how it went.”