One buddy who stayed there was just layed off two weeks ago after 29 years. A talented RF engineer but he has no degree.
Nothing wrong with having a degree, but sometimes it doesn't mean squat.
My father-in-law moved from England to MA sometime in the late 50's to work for Raytheon. He didn't have a degree, just some military experience as a young man in the UK. They were badly in need of radar engineers, so they made the inter-continental relocation worth his while. He stayed with the company until he retired about 15 years ago; his last major job was with the Pave Paws project on Cape Cod, and he is now enjoying a very comfortable retirement.
My sister-in-law is a software engineer, and is now a self-employed consultant. She has only a HS degree, and got all her technical education via OJT with Digital before they went belly-up years ago. She makes substantially more money than a lot of people with university degrees in technical fields.
I have a BA degree, but my income has never equalled theirs. The main reason is that only once in my life did I ever move to take a job, and I regretted that afterwards. I always preferred to choose where I wanted to live and then take whatever job I could find in the local area.