My favorite uncle made Captain before they shipped him home from Germany in 1946, and retired from the Reserve as an LTC. He told me more than once that there were as many skunks in uniforms as there were in civvies, and that bad officers were far worse than bad NCOs. Forty years later, my four-deployment son tells me - albeit with more F bombs - essentially the same thing.
Like you mentioned, the first guy I thought of when I saw Vindman getting his gold leaves polished by the left was another fine, upstanding officer named Nidal Hassan.
In Vindman's case they are silver leaves, but the point is well taken. 14 years in the Regular Army and I agree completely.