your point is taken, but this specific member of the military is a lieutenant. and while certainly lieutenants are among the lowest officer grades, by definition officers are an elevated class of soldier. they come from wealthier families, join up after receiving a college degree (often through highly selective military academies), and are career oriented. they get far better pay, far nicer amenities, etc. they represent a significant investment of professional development and managerial/leadership resources.

even though the US army is highly politicized and "officer heavy", still ~80% of US army soldiers are not officers. out of the typical annual recruitment, only 10% of new soldiers are commissioned as officers. if he is a first lieutenant, he is among the "executive" officers for his company, which is anywhere from 100-250 soldiers and may have anywhere from 3-7 junior of the non-executive, jr lieutenants... all of whom function under the command of a single major or a captain.

all that to say, the military is a very paternalistic, total institution, with regards to its own personnel. cohesion, morale, and chain of command depends on these middle managers seemingly being concerned about the morale of their direct reports and receiving the impression of reasonable concern from their immediate supervisors, especially when under personal crisis. we rip on the military for being a bunch of loser bozos, and they are, but the officer corps is its elite, leadership caste. in the details of the story, you can see the special consideration for an officer in the reporter saying her husband is currently with her in Sydney... so he was pretty rapidly authorized to not only go on leave from the base, but to leave the country to go be with his family in the aftermath.

i really wouldn't be surprised if this story, especially making the news, isn't something that has spawned some conversation among flag officers in hawaii (probably one of the most strategically significant bases on the planet) attempting to backchannel some unofficial ass chewing over this to somebody in DHS/CBP.

honestly, i think that's why this story made the news in the first place: some CBP fuckup kidnapped and SA'd an army officer's wife for fun then dumped her on a plane to get rid of her saying, "don't come back". i can absolutely imagine a captain or a major that guy reports to... or even someone higher up wanting to send a "yank the leash" message to whoever is corralling the sadists on staff over at that CBP post and requesting somebody roll up a newspaper and smack the specific rabid dog on the nose.

no clue how it's going to go or what we'll learn going forward, because it definitely feels like the wheels are coming off all over the place in service of discouraging all border crossing.