He’s what the layperson thinks a fighter pilot is like.
To military pilots, he’s the guy in flight school who watched Top Gun way too much and somehow, for some unknowable reason, his IP, peers, and formal squadron didn’t beat and bully it out of him.
That said, he has a kill. That does carry weight in the military.
Miles Teller’s character on the other hand is chronologically pushing 40, and is still a Lieutenant… So yeah, Hangman had a point about him having issues.
And that ‘Mav pulled my Academy app’ is bullshit. Just go to NROTC like a normal person and commission there. Or go to OCS or, if you just have to go to a Service Academy, go to the MMA (which is what I think he did.)