chevron \SHEV-run\ noun
Meaning: a figure, pattern, or object having the shape of a V or an inverted V: as a : a heraldic charge consisting of two diagonal stripes meeting at an angle usually with the point up *b: a sleeve badge that indicates the wearer's rank and service (as in the armed forces)

I ran my hand down the chevrons on my jacket. Ever since I had joined the army in the Spring of 1942, I'd been deeply miserable. Now, with a dishonourable discharge hanging over my head, I can't bear to leave. My mother and father had been killed in the blitz three nights before, my sister is still out in India, and Michael, the only other person I've loved, is dead, hanged. Everyone says he'd killed himself, but I know he'd never have done that. They did that to him. They'd have done it to me too, but they didn't want to bother themselves. They know leaving me alive, alone, will hurt so much more. I tried to get into his room to take something to remember him by, but they wouldn't let me. I still have a handkerchief he gave me, but the smell of him is leaving it like a waterfall. They'll give his clothes to someone new, a fresh recruit into this, some poor young boy. War isn't brutal, humans are, regardless of the time or place.