According to him, he had a heavy dose of post war PTSD right about then, and the scene where he was in complete despair was him channeling that feeling. He was an ETO bomber pilot and was right in the thick of it.
From what I’ve read, Brigadier General Stewart went through the type of trauma that Gregory Peck’s character, General Frank Savage, experienced in the movie “Twelve O’Clock High”.
Just the other day I read that when he was praying in the bar, he actually broke down and was truly sobbing during that scene.