Leaving Boeing stops the benefits clock instead of resetting it.
A lot of old companies had benefit carrots designed to keep you from leaving, so those benefits come on work anniversaries, rather than cumulative years of service. If you leave at 4 years to start your own company and then get bought or come back, tough luck, you start over.
If you worked at Boeing off and on for your whole career you'd still be in the pension program, even if you kept leaving every 4 years to do something else.
A lot of old companies had benefit carrots designed to keep you from leaving, so those benefits come on work anniversaries, rather than cumulative years of service. If you leave at 4 years to start your own company and then get bought or come back, tough luck, you start over.
If you worked at Boeing off and on for your whole career you'd still be in the pension program, even if you kept leaving every 4 years to do something else.