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An O-5 (Lieutenant Colonel or Navy Commander) with 24 years will pull down $5890/mo. You have to look at the pay rate by years of service and also allow for the extra percentage/year for each year or part of a year over the 20 year retirement threshold.

My guess is he's an O5 that didn't make O-6 (normally about 21-22 year point), so hanging around only gets him small incremental bumps in his pension. He can retire and work for a defense contractor and easily double his current active duty pay as well as start up a 401K.

Those guessing general officers are way off...with their base pay + extra years service they knock down around $10k or more in retirement.