Why do so many people in the military have useless degrees?

....served in both NCO and officer ranks - retiring at 28yrs...degrees are in History - have great pension from the Army and high GS pay grade with another pension coming...useless degrees? ...not at all....

I believe this is an axiom

The Degree itself is an "Interest".
However, the process of EDUCATION itself is the unreplaceable SKILL of LEARNING!

Those four years, or whatever, are teaching the student how to think, building new brain pathways, persistence, critical thinking, perspective, judgement, confidence, and much more.

One has to fit classes into ones military responsibilities. For me that meant no classes in physics, chemistry and math. No one provides classes in Quantum Mechanics at night.

I guess it depends on how you use degree. I don’t list my JD on CVs anymore because it’s a non-bar degree and it’s from a defunct university. But during my career I needed both CEUs and legal knowledge. I already had three children and several not so “useless” degrees. When I informed my wife that I was thinking of going back to school to get my law degree she said, ‘How exiting, let me know what it’s like being a single lawyer.’ So I chose an online/correspondence program not approved by the ABA. (I even got some CEUs.)That degree was one the most valuable useless degrees I could have earned. I used the considerable knowledge acquired in tha program throughout my career. I suppose value, like beauty seems is in the eye of the beholder.

Promotion points

I don’t think degrees are useless. I believe what some military personnel do is take a lot of useless chaotic classes to earn promotion points. My case was as stated as above. I took a lot of classes hoping to get to that maximum point level in education for promotion. I took all kinds of correspondence courses as well. When I got out, sadly, none of my college courses transferred over because I took bullshit elective classes. I still had to do the math, English, science, etc. that was required for an associate’s degree. No one told me this, and if they did I probably ignored them. Where I was at, at the time I was in, there were no “ educational counselors” available. Get your associates degree first. Bear in mind, that’s like a high school diploma in the eyes of people with degrees.
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SGT Davisson, no form of education is useless, it is all based on what each person does with it. The only real question why every person isn't getting some form of educational knowledge, Tech School, College or other forms of learning. America as a whole is way behind other countries, when it comes our education system, we should honor and admire anyone that wants to expand their knowledge. So, let's turn your questions around and ask, why isn't everyone getting involved in education, either at the K-12 grades or higher?

I wondered that myself. Most of the pilots had Arts degrees.

So they can become OFFICERS.