It looked like he was struggling with his school work in the flight class.
Don't you have to go to college first before you go military school? Mayo seems like he comes from a poor background and wouldn't be able to afford college.
A batchelor's degree is required to be considered for the class.
As to struggling in class, the work to get his undergraduate degree might have been simpler by comparison. The coursework in flight school has quite a lot of advanced math.
As to his being able to afford it, there are quite a few scholarship opportunities for military dependents. Especially given his mother's suicide and his father's active duty and constant deployment. Added to this is probably his academic achievement and motivation leading up to and including college.
Mayo being a college grad was confirmed at the beginning of the movie, the opening dialogue in fact. When he wakes up the morning after he and his dad have sex with the prostitutes at his dad's apartment, his father says to him when they were in the bathroom, "Pretty wild, huh? I bet you never got it on like that at that jerkwater college you graduated from."
But when his dad's refers to Zack's college as "jerkwater," we have to assume that the college wasn't very prestigious, and Mayo most likely received at best a second or even third-rate college education. This would most likely explain why he struggled in aerodynamics and needed Worley to get him through.
What's the big deal about collage? Any moron can get through college. Look at the world leaders.
"They sucked his brains out!"
There was much more financial aid available back then. it made funding your education much easier. And not all colleges are created equal when it comes to academics.
shareThe novelization of the film has Zack arriving at his dad's place the day before and informs him that he actually graduated and got his degree.
It's also inferred that he put himself through school, working at various jobs like construction.
Mayo was not exactly from a poor background. His father was an E6 in the Navy, the top middle part of the enlisted. Many E6's live in middle class homes and with families, but many others don't manage their money well and like his father probably blow their money on booze and women. Plus many enlisted back then came from poor and uneducated backgrounds and joined to get out of it.
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