Why do most recent Medal of Honor recipients leave the military shortly after being awarded it?

Most who go into military service fall into one or more of several categories. Now understand this is based upon many candid conversations with troops of various branches that I came into contact with over the years.
1) They had nothing better at the time/did it for the College fund.
2) It was a family thing. IE my father served, my grandfather et., so it's my turn.
3) It was either this or jail.
4) Patriotism. IE After 9/11
5) A stepping stone to a better career and opportunities.

Some will serve their initial enlistment tour and get out. They realize that the military is not for them or they achieved their goal, whether that be saving some money or having the College Fund so they can now go on to college. Some will have started out on that route but realized that they either liked the military or were good at it and that they can go to college etc while they are serving.

620+ presentations of the MoH have been posthumous. The rest I suspect are a mix. It's not that people get out after they receive it. More likely it is that they are already out and have been out some time when they finally do receive it. It takes time for these things to flow through a chain of command and if it happens to be after a certain time it requires approval of Congress. Red Tape only knows one speed: slow.

As to why a MoH recipient would get out early rather than complete their 20? I can only speculate based upon my own experience. No, I was not, nor am I a MoH winner but I was with the Rangers when we took Panama thus eligible to wear my Units Crest as a combat patch upon PCS. I cannot count the number of times I got asked by soldiers that did not have combat experience the usual bevy of near pointless questions. You get tired of answering them almost day in and day out. I suspect that the questions get tedious to the MoH recipient who already feels as if they really did not earn the award. They, in their minds, just did their jobs, nothing more, nothing less.

Just my 2 cents.

Don't know, however i had the pleasure of serving under two MOH recepiants. Both were incredibly humble , and an inspiration to all. Col Livingston retired as a LTGen. And Col Fox as a colonel after 43 years of active duty. GySgt Pruitt retired as a MSgt after twenty plus years. SgtMaj Kellogg had twenty plus years. So I think it is something very personal with each Marine, and the severity of their wounds.

I know of no order prohibiting MoH receipients from deploying........

Not true at all. Many recipients of the medal have gone on and finished careers....

Can't say about today but during Vietnam only 1/3rd survived the experience that earned them the award and many of those were badly injured. I don't think amputees could continue to serve back then. Advances in prosthetics have changed that.

Maybe everything after that is anti-climactic. Tolerance for military bullshit may be pretty low. I would love to hear from a panel of MoH recipients, all will no doubt have different reasons.

It may have something to do with John Basilone who was awarded the MOH for Guadalcanal and then was KIA at Iwo. just speculating.

When I was on the USS T.R. I had a chief in my division who was an MOH recipient from vietnam. He did not retire after getting it, he switched to the Navy and became a nuclear electrician.

I only know one, valor in combat as a SP4 medic, retired as a LTCol.

Around 2012 I heard MOH recipient Bruce Crandall speak at an ROTC event. He was kind to all in the room and was a great motivation for the cadets, and yet did not blow smoke. Having started my career in the post Vietnam Era, 1978, I aspired to be like Colonel Crandall and Major Ed "Too Tall" Freeman (also a MOH recipient). Those who live have a great opportunity to speak to and inspire the next generation of warriors.