He should have said 'YES'

I kept saying the same thing to myself for years. But keep in mind, the young men, including Will McClean, were accultured with the moral ethic of absolute honesty in the academy. None of them had real life experience, even in the real world military. In the real world, a saavy person would have recognized the situation for what it was and indeed said, 'yes', understanding that bending the absolute truth to protect an innocent friend from devious, not-so-ethical people with malevolent intentions themselves, would have been appropriate. Will, like most young men in that academy were idealistic almost to a fault...ah, the innocence of youth.