When you get your masters on shore duty, do you have to find a college near where you are stationed or do you apply to different colleges and the Navy will let you go there? And I still think that getting an engineering degree after an initial 3 year sea duty will still look good to an employer who also considers you were flying planes for 8 years, that seems like expertise in the aerospace field to me that when couple with a degree would look pretty good??
There are programs wherein the military will send you to a grad-school full time. Usually that is Naval Postgrad, but there are fellowships and such at other schools. Not completely sure about the Nav, but in the Marines these are programs FOR PARTICULAR SCHOOLS, not just, "hmmm...UVA looks fun, think I'll apply there." These programs also come with specific obligations attached, usually a tour in the field you just studied (no free rides in the military).
If you're talking doing school on your own dime (or with GI Bill or TA) on your own time, it will have to be a nearby school, one with distance education (e.g. internet based), or one with a military extension campus. Most major Navy and Marine bases have 3-5 civilian schools that send civilian instructors to teach on base during off-duty hours. The degree programs vary, but are generally a combination of associates', bachelors', and masters' programs.
Some of the undergrad programs have technical majors, but most of the graduate programs are business, humanities, or soft sciences (e.g. sociology).
Also, I wouldn't consider FLYING planes aerospace engineering experience, unless it's a job like flight test, or possibly working for a NAVAIR depot, though that one is stretching it. The technical demands of aviation are not that rigorous, at least engineering-wise.