..It is odd how the military puts fresh-faced college grads in charge of units that are actually run by more experienced NCO's who in some cases have no college degree. Not to say the NCO's aren't expected to get degrees also.
But the reality is that (in my experience) the "fresh-faced college grads" (the 90% of them who have a little bit of common sense) are letting the senior NCO's run things, and
A) are doing the more complicated paperwork that you atually need a college education to figure out
B) giving exhortative speeches on topics "suggested" to them by their senior NCO's
C) are figuring out orders from higher ranking officers and translating them to the senior NCO's
The better of those officers stay in the military and are promoted to continually higher command billets, the lesser go into private businesses and either learn anew and advance or get stuck in HR, or go to the Pentagon and learn how to be DC beaurocrats.
Those in the "technical" fields are just about exactly like the civilian versions of themselves, IMHO. For example, an Air Force MD will be as good a doctor as he'd be as a civilian, he has a lesser pay, but a more stable clientel, and fewer worries of liability.