He was trying to make himself look better with that remark saying that he didn't exactly fail out of all three schools, and that he had just quit that one. That was the type of attitude that Holden reveals throughout the novel. He also has very negative feelings towards the military for some reason. He despises anything that has to do with the military. Every time that he mentions something about the military, he says how much he hates the Army and how he wouldn't be able to stand it if he ever had to go. "It wouldn't be too bad if they"d just take you and shoot you or something, but you have to stay in the Army so goddam long." (Page 140). That was what he had to say about it. He also comments, "I swear if there's ever another war, they better just take me out and stick me in front of a firing squad." (Page 141). He has his mind set that he Army is definitely not a place for him. .
The life of J.D Salinger is connected to facts from the story in various ways. He made all of these facts about Holden to somehow show how his experiences are somewhat similar. Salinger attended three different colleges. He went to NYU, Ursinus College, and Columbia University. It is not very clear if he failed out of these schools, or just left out them, but we do see a similarity. He exaggerated in making Holden fail out of most of the schools he attended, but we can clearly see the resemblance when both of them have attended three different schools, and never graduated anyone of the three. However, Salinger did graduate from Valley Forge Military, and he also served for the U.S. Army in World War II during 1942-1946 as a staff sergeant. All of this does sound a bit ironic, because of the fact that Holden did not like the Army at all. The biggest controversy here is that Salinger created a character that would never even think of joining the Army and yet he himself graduated from a military school and served in the Army.