Lt. Colonel Peters got out of the Army after 18 years. He did not retire with a pension. You need at least 20 or a medical discharge for a pension. Peters use to be respectable at one time. Not so much anymore.
Wikipedia does not agree with you. It indicates he enlisted in 1976, went to OCS, and retired in 1998. I wondered why he was only a lite Colonel but the enlisted time answers that.
My brother enlisted too and retired after 17 years with a force reduction retirement as a Major. After a couple of years he retirement was 100%.
Lt. Colonel Peters got out of the Army after 18 years. He did not retire with a pension.
Source?