Does anyone find military job fairs unsuccessful?

Unfortunately Job Fairs have become a farce of sorts and as you stated most of the recruiters there are working for schools. The RecruitMilitary is particularly bad. I would recommend local job fairs that are not Veteran specific, you will probably have more luck as far as job fairs go, especially at local colleges. Also, and this may sound strange, I still recommend Craigslist for jobs. Finally, and you may already be doing this, when you use online job boards like Indeed or Monster, only use it as a way to find the company and possible job. Don't apply for a job through their site, be sure to go to the company site, make sure the job posting is actually still available, and apply directly.

Also SGT M. you might want to check out Hero2Hired. It is a group that is specific to Reserve/National Guard. They might be more what you are looking for and I have heard good things about them.

I went to RecruitMilitary job fairs a couple of times, and those did not lead to anything in my career field. I saw a lot of schools there, but I have my Master's already and not looking to go back to school again for a while. I have mostly used the internet for job searches. I have also gotten emails from the H2H program, with job announcements, but most of the jobs are not in my field and are not in my area so I have not had luck with those either.

Perhaps if your school holds a job fair at some point, you may have better luck there. My previous school held some job fairs and I at least had the chance to talk to some people who actually worked in the jobs they were offering, and not just a spokesperson for the company.

I have a LinkedIn profile and I signed up for a membership with the Wounded Warriors Project as well. I think the best answer is networking, and letting people know that you are looking for a job. Hopefully they might hear about something from someone and keep you in mind.