Land the next thing.
The months around your DD-214 are the highest-leverage of your career. File the right claims, translate the right experience, and read the right books. Built by veterans who’ve been through it.
Benefits Delivery at Discharge (BDD): file your VA claim 180–90 days before your separation date. Faster decisions, lower hassle, and you start collecting the day after your DD-214. If you wait until after you’re out, you’re looking at 4–9 months on the standard track.
Combined rating math (the VA does NOT add percentages — it stacks them) and 2026 monthly compensation amounts by rating, dependents, and SMC.
What the examiner is actually looking for, how to prepare, what to bring, and how to handle questions designed to lower your rating.
What a strong nexus letter looks like, who can write one, what language matters, and the IMOs that have actually moved ratings.
Higher-Level Review, Supplemental Claim, and Board Appeal — when each applies, expected timelines, and the evidence that wins.
Presumptive conditions for burn pit exposure, Camp Lejeune, Agent Orange, and Gulf War. Who qualifies, what to file, and the deadlines.
Stressor letters, MST claims, secondary conditions, and the difference between an in-service and post-service diagnosis on your rating.
BCMR vs DRB, when to use each, the standards of review, and the cases where a "bad paper" discharge can become Honorable.
Chapter discharge mechanics, voluntary vs administrative, hardship, conscientious objector, and what shows on your DD-214.
Post-9/11 vs Montgomery, Yellow Ribbon math, transferring to dependents, and the in-state/out-of-state tuition trap.
Turn MOS jargon into civilian language hiring managers actually understand. With salary anchors and skill-stack mapping.
The books veterans actually pass to each other after they get out — for the transition, the marriage, the meaning, the next thing.
MST claims, gender-specific care at the VA, conditions undercoded for women, and the providers who actually understand.