I just finished watching the entire series and this is what I thought about it:
Upon being introduced to the Army Air Corps, the main character finds out that not only correcting his superior officers can land him in the dog house but, the mechanization of the military creates an environment where superior officers are more likely to promote or hand out awards than admit responsibility for mistakes that are quite often deadly. In the series, a tail-gunner is killed on a bombing run because the pilot accidentally caused the bomber to miss the target which caused him to circle the target around twice. Upon his superior officers discussing this with the pilot what happened, instead of admitting responsibility he gives the pilot an award and sweeps it under the rug. The pilot i.e. the main character after trying to escape service in the Mediterranean bombing campaign multiple times by either pretending to be sick and failing to get off duty or trying to go AWOL. By the last episode the main character finally falls into place accepting his fate that he is someone who is lucky in that after 50+ bombing missions he can only be a witness to death and not himself be dead and at peace or escape the cycle that service in the US Military presents.
This creates a show that is both tragic and comical being the satirical situations present equal amounts of tragedy and comedy. A stunningly well done show that hits most of the points from the book.
The doctor from the first episode presents it well in the clip below:
