So why did the Captain take that long swim?

***SPOILERS***

"IF" Bruce Dern's character at the end took his own life, why did he do it?

He didn't seem too bothered with losing his woman but he did admit that he was unhappy with himself not being the hero he had always hoped to be. Was his reason for discharge an accident or did he actually shoot himself to get out of there? I mean he wasn't really speaking about getting back to his men but he also didn't speak about how the military let him down in terms of fighting a war that wasn't as black and white and supported by the country as much as something like WW2. It sounded like he only had selfish reasons to go back, like he still hadn't proven to himself that he was worthy to stand amongst the other recipients. To me this either says he was a very loyal and prideful Marine or he shot himself because he couldn't handle what he was experiencing and the truth of this was eating him away inside.

I don't know, what do you think?



"the day I tried to live, I learned that I was alive"