Maybe it was the time and place. Remember, back then a soldier's pay was really horrible so it isn't unreasonable for the soldiers to scam the homos for money. In the book, they tried to get money from them WITHOUT going all the way. Since this part of the book was highly detailed, I am sure that Jones himself was pulling just such a scam while in the military. Also Jones almost ALWAYS based events in his novels to things he has seen or participated in. I did a thorough research of his Go To The Widowmaker and the closeness of the facts to the events in the books was astonishing. Almost a perfect match.
Oh, and from reading this book and others by Jones, I am sure he was an alcoholic. However, since this did not seem to affect his writing (although it did cause an early death), I don't hold this against him.
p.s. A starting point for research on whether there were big homo investigations in Hawaii circa 1941 is to check out the FBI's Freedom of Information files.
Jack Malloy is my favorite character in the book. He is his own man and extremely intelligent but in the military environment, he just doesn't fit in. Ironically, many of the characters in the book who were perceived by the officers as "screw-ups" would have made the best soldiers in wartime. This is something that SSgt Warden seemed to realize. His relationship with Prewitt is interesting. One one hand, Warden respected Prewitt as a potentially great soldier but on the other hand, hated him for who he was and happily went along with Captain Holmes efforts to break him.
During my time in Marine boot camp, I served briefly on guard duty for the brig (they called it "Correctional Platoon"). The conditions there are much as described in the book. Those men go through hell. I remember how they had to wake up and completely disassemble their "racks" (bunk beds) and stack the rails up against the wall. At the end of the workday (usually digging ditches or doing other scut work), they would have to reassemble them. Sometimes the Sgt. on duty would take a handful of bolts and throw them across the room after they left for the day, adding to the confusion that evening when the poor guys had to put their racks back together again.
The other major character that surprised me was Sgt. Warden. He had his own ways of doing things, but his goal was to have the best company at the base. Which it appeared he achieved. Overall, I did find the book interesting, and if it is an accurate picture of pre-WWII military life, anyone who was in before WWII started deserves any medal they may have received, and possibly a couple of more.