Much as this is fun and all. I'm smelling that there was a grand conspiracy to smother the institutional knowledge of grandpa's era. For whatever reason.
Don't you know? Everyone on the internet have this resume:
I graduated top of my class in the Navy Seals, and I've been involved in numerous secret raids on Al-Quaeda, and I have over 300 confirmed kills. I am trained in gorilla warfare and I'm the top sniper in the entire US armed forces. You...
It's not the "quality". It's the 180 shift from peace to chaos which raises the tension, and then the tension releases.
Release tension. Raise tension. Release tension. Raise tension. That makes this work unique in this sense.
That's what I think the author is going for.
Well. It has to happen.
Dad has to hold the stupid ball for this arc to make the son look good for once.
Just for this arc, he's ignoring the same "expensive isn't everything" philosophy he keeps telling his son.