This Killian guy seems to me to be your typical girly-man admin type who was really taken by pretty looking paper-work. I bet he told his wing-man many times that he couldn't wait to put his bird back down on the deck so that he could get back to his desk and churn out some more letter prefect memos to his boss.
Like all fighter jocks he knew how he was going to get his next promotion, and it sure wasn't going to be by flying around with afterburners cut in.