If it's any consolation, the USAF still hasn't learned this lesson. (I'm a civilian contractor at Hill AFB and we get a lot of 'retired' pilots that just want to fly.)
No doubt about that at all. The ongoing joke, and maybe reality, is that when pilots get promoted to O-6 and above, they go to a secret place, get a pre frontal lobotomy, and lose all sense of reality about being one of the troops in the trenches. They become more concerned with the politics of making the next rank, more stars on their shoulders, and forget how much political games piss off those they “lead”.
