my older brother, a Marine, arranged for dad to get his diploma from Annapolis High with a bunch of other men who joined the war effort without getting their HS diplomas...it was a special ceremony and meant a lot to my father..
dear brother the Marine was exposed to agent orange in Nam and got very bad Parkinson's and has passed...age early 70's.....
life is not really fair, ever...
My father's rural high school only went up to the 11th grade, so he graduated a couple of months after his 17th birthday. My grandparents refused to sign the enlistment form until he graduated (he was underage), so he enlisted in the Navy the day after his graduation. He was a fighter pilot in WWII.