He wasn't an officer at the time, more's the pity. And his authority must be limited indeed if even his well-wishes can be deemed over-the-line.
Flunked? I don't think so; leadership often requires more than tact; sometimes it may even require guts.
"Never volunteer" evidently wasn't his credo.
"And his authority must be limited indeed if even his well-wishes can be deemed over-the-line."
A lot less limited than most civilians would believe.
Go back to the sex scandals at the Academy a while back. There were some cheating scandals even further back.
They all revolved around the upperclassmen having damn-near-Godlike authority over juniors, and not being adequately supervised. The Air Force Academy has a particularly bad corporate culture in this regard.