I thought the original question involved someone receiving two pensions -- one military, one civilian -- but I see from the last line that there is only one pension.  So if he is not a double dipper, he just gets the $3,500.  

The first return involving this situation, I did wrong, but my client needed only the $3,500 to get down to zero tax, the $2,500 for his school pension was not needed.  I also did some research and I think it applied to 2018 returns also -- this was part of the retroactive law passed in May 2019 -- but I would double check that before filing an amended return for a possible $140 refund.