At dusk, she stood on her own front porch and watched the fireflies come out.

No one asked her where she’d been, what she’d spent, or why dinner wasn’t ready.

PART 20: A Different Kind of Uniform

Six months after the dinner, a local veterans’ service nonprofit organized a public information session about donation transparency and ways to verify fundraising appeals.

Moreno invited me, but I declined to appear in uniform or as an Army representative.

My assignment and rank did not make me an expert in nonprofit accounting, and the matter was personal.