In the vast majority of military careers pols matter little. Careers outlast multiple POTUS and mostly take place far away from them. When you're chilling at a NATO base, Japan or South Korea what happens in DC is of nil interest unless you have or want orders there.
Why would anyone care what the President of the US thinks of their job so long as their pay shows up? I don't value the respect of those I hold in contempt nor grudge their indifference to me. We owe each other nothing not spelt out in law.
From a .mil perspective the HMFIC is doing his thing and you do yours. Your co-workers and assignments are far more relevant to your life than distant politicians you'll likely never interact with. Every few years there will be a different hack in the Oval Office. They're just another transient boss and don't follow you out the gate when you retire.
Vesting a reliable recession-resistant retirement is absolutely worth killing for, especially after a mere twenty years which leaves time to enjoy the second half of your life. Retiring in your forties frees you to pursue a second career or whatever steams your Speedos. The armed forces need younger, deployable troops capable of expeditionary warfare. When those troops age out and retire their accumulated experience remains valuable to support the same hardware and missions differently.
The point of all those Stanford degrees was to get money. Lack of jobs suggests using those credentials elsewhere, preferably in careers resistant to economic downturns and inconvenient to outsource.
