He knew that he wasn’t qualified to captain a ship and I don’t think even with his admiral father’s help he could have gotten his own ship. They didn’t mind him endangering his own life but I don’t believe the Navy would have allowed him to endanger a lot of other lives.
Seriously? An unqualified pilot landing on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier endangers 5000 plus lives if a boo boo happens and they do happen even by best of pilots. I've seen the results before. The ones that didn't make it out or jetison killed them were carried to the ships aft walk in cooler till fly off. That's not a sea story that's fact. A Snipe from the ships AC&R Shop maintains a 24/7 watch outside the cooler till the body is flown off.
Making command of a smaller surface ship is easier and a lot less risk involved than the job of a Naval aviator doing carrier ops.