Not all government contracting is defence contracting: Not all colleagues are retired military members in their second career.
But a whole whack of *it* is, and a whole whack of *them* are. Given that, you’d think companies would do something to help life-long civilians and retired senior military officers work effectively together, rather than just stumbling through it. Maybe some do. I never saw it.
Some of the inevitable bumps were annoying; some were puzzling; some were just funny. Some were all three.