Patrick,
The advice you have been given so far has been fairly accurate. Since you brought up your military service (thanks for your service, my son is active duty USMC), I will feel free to use it to illustrate my point. In the military, did you allow the boots fresh out to come into the squad bay and start running their mouths and asking the same questions that every newby asks, or did you expect them to keep quiet and figure out the lay of the land and then ask specific questions? Same holds true here. How would it have gone if a boot came in and started in with, "Hi, I'm new here, so help me out with everything. That is what you are here for, right."
Now, on to your bike. It is not the biggest POS ever invented, but it ranks right up there with the KZ440ltd and the Yamaha XS400 Special II as being among the most boring bikes ever made. If it were me, I would concentrate on tires, suspension and brakes. I would put a set of Superbike bars on it and ride it until I was tired of it (about 2 weeks) and then sell it for a profit and buy a bike that better suits what you want to do. Of course, since we don't anything about you or your intended use, since you wouldn't fill out your bio, I am just guessing that a boring 400 won't satisfy you for long. A good many of the people here live in the NE (not me), they may be helpful in person. Since you put in your first post that any input would be helpful, don't get all but hurt when it is advice you didn't want to hear.
My free advice to you is to lighten up, get to know the people here ( many of us do actually know each other in the real world, crazy in the interwebs, huh?) and do some reading on here. The CB/CM/CMX 400/450 has been covered many times here before. It can be made into a cafe bike but it isn't easy, the result is usually less than satisfactory and it is almost always more trouble than it is worth. I may and try to do one some day if I am feeling like a glutton for punishment, just to see one done right.
So, welcome. Stick around if you want to, otherwise I usually recommend that people that don't feel welcome here should check out Do the Ton. They are very nice over there.
Ken