The Army will end a program in 2018 that allowed some soldiers to receive retirement benefits without serving a full 20 years in uniform, the service's top civilian recently announced in a memorandum. The Temporary Early Retirement Authority, or TERA, program allowed soldiers who had served at least 15 years but less than the 20 years typically needed to secure full retirement entitlements to receive those benefits if they had been selected for a discharge as part of the Army's drawdown. It also allowed some officers to receive those benefits if they had not been selected for a promotion. For more details, see this Military.com article.