Retirees often suffer when government takes over pension plans.(Chicago Tribune)

Byline: Stephen Franklin

CHICAGO _ On the most grueling days, Duane Warning reminded himself that there would be a pension awaiting him _ and that he had earned it.

He got his pension, for sure, but it was not what he expected.

After 37 years as a Trans World Airlines pilot, commuting daily for the last 15 years on the job from his home in the far south suburbs of Chicago to a St. Louis hub, he wound up with about half of what the airline had promised him.

"I was decimated. I was upset. But there was nothing I could do. I had to swallow it," said the 60-year-old former pilot, who receives a $1,600 monthly pension, not the $3,100 he had counted on. The difference in the numbers is the result of TWA's bankruptcy and the federal takeover of its pension plans in 2001.

Warning and …