I knew I shouldn't have left this alone this long. Okay, I'm gonna let most of it lie, but not all.
As I said, I'm drifting away from debating about the UEF, and more about the issue of discipline in general. But when your pilots don't give the respect of even calling superior officers Sir or Ma'am, and they don't get reprimanded for it on the spot, that makes me think the UEF aren't paying much attention to who they give commissions.
Observation: Sir or Ma'am is
superficial discipline. Take an example; the British in WW2 were very good about "sir" and saluting superiors and so forth. Their actual field proficency was
at best equal with American units where saluting and sirring were treated in more lax fashion, and in some spheres (compare the RN and the USN, for example) they came off significantly worse.
When it comes down to it, the only form of discipline that really matters on the firing line is the ability to take and execute orders. The UEF appears to manage that just as well as anyone does. Their real problems would seem to lie further up the chain of command.