It’s difficult to feel any sympathy. If you sign up you gotta go when they call you and do what they tell you to do. That’s the Military: if you don’t like it, be a civilian.
He didn’t have a choice, he was sent to a naval academy which demands a commitment to the navy for several years after you graduate...
Yes, they do. They get a free pass out of Trenton, New Jersey, which is one of the worst hellholes in the country. They get freebie tuition to one of the most prestigious universities in the world. I suspect that if Ted WIlliams and Johnny Sain were still around, Mr. Johnson would get a private discussion about silence and gratitude.