This is not unique to SOF retirees. In my field, I have a similar problem. I am a software engineer with, um, many years of experience working on large scale real time systems. This is complex stuff and I am good at it. But I have a hard time getting past the HR screeners that look at my resume and see I don't have X number of years experience in a particular programming language. The programming language is the easy part, I can teach my 14 y.o. a programming language in a week. The knowledge and experience I have and can bring to similar projects far out weighs the couple of weeks it takes to learn a new programming language. Also, there is so much that is unique to a large scale program, that again learning a language is the easy part. But HR won't even look at my resume, in many cases.
I guess my point is that it is difficult to get all kinds of employers to see the value of non-quantifiable skills. Or maybe it is just the screeners in the HR department that need the quantifiable skills.