Won't disagree with you, there. My last job on active duty was a Headquarters Battery Cdr at Fort Bliss. A group of retired field grades met a few times a month for breakfast, at my dining facility.
Damn, they were a pain in the ass. They thought they were still on active duty, and made life miserable for my cooks. They'd go bitching to my boss, the Battalion Cdr, when they thought the service wasn't good enough for them. They never came to me, the pricks.
Gratitude. some have it some don’t. When it came to food, pay, and maintenance of airplanes, officers who understood, knew who to be grateful for. Those worker bees wearing fatigues with stripes on their sleeves.