[If it were anyone else he would absolutely reach out to touch the other guy's arm, to offer comfort. But he thought by now that he knew the man enough that he wouldn't welcome it.]

I'm sorry. It has to suck. I can't imagine you're the sort of person that doesn't care about your men, even if it's quietly. Seeing them come into it for the wrong reasons, misled by some ads that a person who has never been in the field made, it's got to be hard.