Built by people who've done it.
Boots and Bearings was founded by a former US Army infantry NCO who went through the transition and found the available help thin, generic, and usually trying to sell something. This is the tool set that should have existed then.
What this is
A set of free tools for service members getting out and veterans already navigating the civilian side. Translate your MOS into language a hiring manager understands. Work out which VA benefits you actually rate. Find a SkillBridge slot. Compare where to land. None of it requires an account, and the parts that do ask for an email tell you why first.
What this isn't
Not a government agency. Not a charity. Not a support group. We aren't affiliated with the Department of Defense or the Department of Veterans Affairs, and nothing here is official guidance — for anything binding, your transition office and the VA are the authority, and we link out to them constantly.
It's also not a springboard for someone else's sales funnel. We don't sell your data, we don't hand your email to a for-profit school, and we don't take money to rank a company higher.
Where the numbers come from
Every figure on this site traces to a public source. Salary and job-growth data comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Occupational matching uses the O*NET military crosswalk. Nonprofit ratings are built from IRS Form 990 filings. SkillBridge listings come from the DoD program directory. Cost-of-living comparisons use BEA regional price parities. Where we score or rank something, the methodology is published so you can disagree with it.
When a number is an estimate, we say so. When we don't know, we say that too.
Straight talk about accuracy
Benefits rules change, and they change without much warning. We date our guides and cite the regulation or agency page behind each claim, but a tool on a website is a starting point — not a substitute for confirming with your finance office, your transition counselor, or the VA before you make a decision that costs money.
Found something wrong? Tell us and we'll fix it, or say publicly that we couldn't verify it.
If you're inside 18 months of separating, the transition timeline is the fastest way to see what you should be doing right now.
Open the transition timeline →