Pros
Good skills learned, including maintenance practices, instructor skills, critical electronic diagnosis, and industrial operation.
Cons
People who are scared of the unknown with separating, or who don't have the functional skills to survive civilian life, end up staying in, ranking up to a higher position, and ultimately becoming in charge of you, regardless of leadership skills. End result is many people in charge of you who make rules and policies to make themselves look good to their superiors, regardless of the suffering of their subordinates. Example: a potential high wind warning occurred, resulting in the upper chain of command wanting to leave that day. Before they left, they realized that they didn't deal with the rest of us; so they pulled an idea out of the hat to make everyone else stay 4 hours late, and have the oncoming crew not relieve until 4 hours late. No wind happened that day, just suffering. So why did they do it? Because it looked like they did something and didn't ignore the people who actually did work around the command. Covered themselves without regard to others.