You know, you can directly point at the post Desert Storm drawdown for that.
Officers and Senior NCO's and some enlisted who had been in the sandbox got their walking papers fast, because the lifer scum jerkoffs stayed back that year and did all the right schools and kissed all the right ass.
Funny thing, I literally overheard an officer complaining to another officer that the enlisted shouldn't be able to wear their combat patches because it created division. The other officer bitched about all the officers who earned medals in Desert Storm as having an 'unfair advantage at promotion boards.'
Then you had the Army in 2012 talking about getting rid of people where the same things were heard.
It never fails. After any conflict, the lifer scum that avoid deployment go to the schools, make the contacts, and then do their best to push out the guys who deployed to ensure that they can climb the ladder without any asshole with pesky combat/deployment awards getting in their way.
Then you have the people who should have NEVER been promoted who get promoted and do their damndest to keep anyone else from noticing their complete fuckups.