[xlm1717]

I want to start by thanking you for your service to our country. But knowing that, your elitism in the rest of your comment is even more confusing.

Not everyone is going to work on large scale engineered systems. Even companies with those systems are gonna need cheaper mediocre coders to code the app that uses the engineered system as a backbone. So what if a few months at hacker school won't replace a four year degree in CS. Take as much or as little schooling as you want, as long as employers are willing to pay for your skills.