It is March and the lovely EnigMarch people have challenged puzzle designers to write a puzzle inspired by today's word: "star".

Oh no! The USA clown President Trump (egged on by his buffoonish adviser Elon Musk) wants to appoint Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Department of Defense. He certainly didn't want to choose based on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, because that's liberal code for excluding failsons such himself. Instead, he chose based on merit.

But this was an unprecedented kind of "merit." Trump nominated John Caine, a three-star Air Force Lt. General, to be Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Title 10 of the U.S. Code says that Trump must choose from four-star generals and admirals. But he's really scraping the bottom of the barrel, had to settle for for Caine, who's missing a star. (In Caine's defense, he's pretty good at flattering Trump, which might count as "merit" in this situation.)

Silver lining: I can make a puzzle out of "missing a star". Below, you see some anagrammed phrases. But beware: though each phrase contained the letters S…T…A…R (in order but not contiguous), those letters went missing before I did the anagramming. To help you out, there are clues down below. Each clue has one letter that stands out. When you know which clue goes with an anagram, write that stands-out letter down in the blank on the left-hand side. When you're done, those left-hand letters should spell out the special character of Caine's "merit." We got you started by unscrambling United (Sta)tes Ai(r) Force; whose clue's stands-out letter is U:

U	DEINTU EST AI CEFOR:	Ⓤn i t e d S t a t e s A i r F o r c e
_	DFNO:	_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_	GINR EQTTU:	_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_	HOU ACFI:	_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_	AGIMN:	_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_	EIILO:	_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_	ILLORTU:	_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_	DFMO:	_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_	AIN CIKPST ADY:	_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_	BE CESST:	_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_	ADDN:	_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Clues:

California university with puzzlehunt traditions
Congratulations, you played yourself (but it's a card game)
Connecticut home of the ACPT nerdfest
Elon Musk came from there, ugh
It's March 17 this year (and every year)
Katharine Hepburn won four of these Oscars
Kidlit classic The Phantom Tollbooth's was Jules Feiffer, for example
Mark Zuckerberg's photo sharing site, now D.E.I.-free
Required level of achievement to be considered (lol nope)
~~Service in which Caine was a lieutenant (3-star) general~~
Squad of two violinists, a violist, and a cellist

Hints, rot-13'd:

Fnvag Cngevpx'f Qnl vf Znepu 17.
Gubfr ivbyvavfgf ner unys bs n fgevat dhnegrg.
Urcohea unf gur erpbeq sbe zbfg Orfg Npgerff Bfpnef

Solution, rot-13'd:

h / havgrq fgngrf nve sbepr / Freivpr va juvpu Pnvar jnf n yvrhgranag (3-fgne) trareny
a / fgnasbeq / Pnyvsbeavn havirefvgl jvgu chmmyruhag genqvgvbaf
d / fgevat dhnegrg / Fdhnq bs gjb ivbyvavfgf, n ivbyvfg, naq n pryyvfg
h / fbhgu nsevpn / Ryba Zhfx pnzr sebz gurer, htu
n / vafgntenz / Znex Mhpxreoret'f cubgb funevat fvgr, abj Q.R.V.-serr
y / fbyvgnver / Pbatenghyngvbaf, lbh cynlrq lbhefrys (ohg vg'f n pneq tnzr)
v / vyyhfgengbe / Xvqyvg pynffvp Gur Cunagbz Gbyyobbgu'f jnf Whyrf Srvssre
s / fgnzsbeq / Pbaarpgvphg ubzr bs gur NPCG areqsrfg
v / fnvag cngevpxf qnl / Vg'f Znepu 17 guvf lrne (naq rirel lrne)
r / orfg npgerff / Xngunevar Urcohea jba sbhe bs gurfr Bfpnef
q / fgnaqneq / Erdhverq yriry bs npuvrirzrag gb or pbafvqrerq (yby abcr)