Read a book many years ago. Best information I have is that it was about a young man who goes to a brutal space academy where they cadets run a gauntlet being hit with belt buckles that scar his face.
He gets posted as a midshipman on a even more brutal ship where the captain routinely spaces cadets for trivial reasons. Once he has to report from the engine room, meaning he will be the last to report, so he says so and so reporting from engine room, eventually the crew mutinies.
Best I have other than his name might begin with a C or a K been looking forever.