I agree ERAU has always had a good reputation on the engineering side. I was addressing the flight ops/aviation science side.
The service academies, while not Phd mills, generally provide their students direct access to DoD operated or funded research and engineering facilities and programs. In the case of USNA it's located across the river.
Top talent will be sent directly to a high-end school for post graduate education either immediately after graduation, or even during their final two years (that's a biatch).
You don't see them too much in rank-and-file engineering because they tend to either stay in the military (with rotations through program management) or get out and go directly into management. They are on a different career track...the ones who like hands-on engineering tend to end up as test pilots and then on to nasa.