You are so right. A real officer would've made that soldier clean latrines for a year, then posted him so far north there's no sunlight.
The story did not say where the soldier will be sent after he returns to the US. Maybe Fort Wainwright or Fort Richardson, with 179 days TDY each year to Ft. Irwin in April through October. In both cases as "Range support" out before the units training there and in after them.