Sooo, you disrespect them until they earn your respect? If that's what you're saying, you neither deserve or have the right to expect respect. It's a two way street. No one is impressed with anyone immediately. If you assume you are inherently superior to people around you, you are dead wrong. There is nothing brave, courageous, or "John Wayne" in your attitude. I'm positive, your commander demanded your respect from the beginning, you didn't have the option to disrespect him & you knew it. It was not optional. That was the real difference. Your teacher have been de-fanged by the liberals. They can't even paddle a smart-arses behind when he needs it. You had no respect because you were not required to respect them by any rules of society, because basically, there are none...not really. You can push a teacher much much farther now and suffer very little risk of punishment, but that's the teachers fault? BS!! Plain & Simple!!! 
Bolded for truth. It's that mentality in this generation. They've all lost their minds. They think they're hot $#!t until they're in a hot spot and then they ARE hot $#!t. ie in a hot spot and about as useful.
I treat EVERYONE with equal respect until they give me a reason to not respect them.
Why? Because there's no need to be a pompous arse just because someone didn't blow through 300 million jihadist/VC/Huns/Nazis/Japs etc.
The teachers you decide to disrespect just might have done some of the stuff your "CO" did. Just because they don't live the military life forever doesn't mean they didn't do it.
Hell I know an 0311 (Infantry) Marine who is an English teacher now. You'd never even know that he was in Fallujah. He never mentions it, doesn't keep the high-n-tight, and isn't all "Murder, death, kill, eat babies!". (BTW - that's my old platoon's motto haha).
If I was your CO and I knew you had that attitude, I would have made you regret joining the JROTC. I would have made you want to go home every night and ask your mom WHY she decided to let you be born. Why? Because you don't deserve the ability to respect yourself if you can't respect others.