Also known as shoulder marks, soft shoulder boards are worn on epauletted shirts and sweaters to display the insignia of grade of male and female USHS Commissioned Corps Officers. The soft boards come in a single size, a 3/4-scale version of the male hard shoulder boards, and do not feature the gilt PHS button found on hard boards.
Soft shoulder boards are primarily worn on the white dress shirt worn with the blue or white Service Dress Coat. Both male and female Corps members wear them with Dinner Dress/Full Dress/Service Dress Blue uniforms, but only females wear the soft shoulder marks on the shirts worn with the White versions of those uniforms. [Note: females wear hard boards on the new choker-style Service Dress White Coat, as opposed to sleeve stripes worn with the old SDW Coat.]
Uniform regulations also call for the wear of soft shoulder boards on the black Army Cardigan and the blue Navy sweater.