Not everyone had the real-life combat experience like Apache. No matter how excellent a student was, when standing face to face with a Zerg, feeling terrified was inevitable. Lack of enough time to build trust and learn the team tactics would also shorten a student's service life or life altogether.
Graduates of some top-notch schools such as Capth would be automatically promoted after only a year of service. The likelihood of these officers partaking in a real combat fresh out of their ivory tower was very little. Even if they were given the opportunity of going to Norton, they were likely not going to accept it since they were already guaranteed a higher ranked position and no longer need to do the dirty groundwork in order to increase rank. The reason that Apache wanted to join the war was not for medals or ranks, but to improve himself as a fighter.
"We can talk about it later. Today we are on vacation, so let's relax. We deserve it!" Apache cracked a smile.
"Agreed!"
