I was active Navy from 1969 to 1990.
From 1969 to about 1980 it was fun. I was a dirty-fingers bench tech, out there on the floor with the troops. Sometimes I knew what was going on, most times I didn't but I knew that keeping the equipment running properly was contributing to the effort. Interesting stuff at work, good friends and good times on my time off.
Then I made E7/Chief Petty Officer and started flying a desk, shuffling papers and being responsible for the stupid shit my people did. As much as I hated office politics and power games, I had to become at least familiar with it to survive and do my job. Not so much fun. From 1981 to 1986 it was just okay.
Then in 1986 I became an assistant Department Head, working for a Lieutenant. Responsible for 30+ people, their deeds and misdeeds, morale, discipline, equipment up-time (and more seriously, down-time) the budget, all the department admin stuff, future planning, training the up-and-coming Chiefs, inspections, readiness checks, etc. ad nausem. Not fun at all. Contributed to my drinking problem. Raised hell with my marriage.
With saved leave and some other smoke and mirrors, I could have retired with credit for 20 years in 1988, but I let myself be talked into one more tour. It was good in that I finally got promoted to E8/Senior Chief, it was bad in that I was completely burned out, flirting with full blown alcoholism and making some really stupid mistakes. Retiring in 1990 was a huge relief.
I wouldn't last 10 minutes in today's Navy.