The IDES process, end to end
All six stages of the Integrated Disability Evaluation System, the branch that ends it early, and the three outcomes if you are found unfit.
Explainer diagrams
Some of this stuff only makes sense once you can see the whole shape of it. These are the processes people ask about most, drawn out in one picture each.
12 diagrams. All free to download and reuse, including on your own site, as long as you credit Military Transition Toolkit with a link. No permission needed, no form to fill out.
Process and programs
Medical boards, SkillBridge, and the transition steps in the order they happen.
How to vet any SkillBridge program
One question to ask the coordinator, what each answer means, and the three red flags that should end the conversation.
VA benefits
Ratings, health care eligibility and how VA sorts who gets seen first.
VA health care priority groups
All eight priority groups ranked, what puts you in each one, and why Group 4 outranks Group 3 despite the larger number.
How VA calculates a hearing loss rating
The four mechanical steps behind Diagnostic Code 6100, why genuine hearing loss so often lands at 0 percent, and the 38 CFR 4.86(b) elevation step that gets skipped.
Pay and money
Final pay, federal pay systems, and what actually lands in your account.
When your final military pay arrives
Roughly 80 percent lands in 3 to 5 days, the balance follows the final audit at 30 to 45 days, and an unresolved debt can hold the rest past 120.
The three main federal pay systems
GS, WG and SES side by side: who each covers, how the grades work, how pay is set, and whether your duty station changes it.
Dual military: who gets paid what BAH
Each member draws their own rate. Dependency status is the only variable that changes the answer, and living together changes nothing.
Education and VR&E
GI Bill, Chapter 31 and the money decisions inside each one.
Which VR&E subsistence rate applies to you
The standard Chapter 31 allowance against the BAH-equivalent election on VA Form 28-0987, and why electing it costs you nothing.
The VR&E Self-Employment track, application to funding
Four phases, the mandatory SBA VBOC coordination people miss, and the $25,000 line that decides who signs off and how long it takes.
VR&E or the Post-9/11 GI Bill
Eligibility, tuition, entitlement, living expenses and transferability side by side, and why order of use is the expensive decision.
Careers and documents
Federal hiring, the DD-214, and the paperwork that follows you out.
The DD-214 blocks that actually matter
The form has 30-plus blocks. Four of them carry almost all of the weight, and the short form leaves out three of those four.
The four federal merit hiring essay questions
What the four questions ask, the 18 U.S.C. 1001 certification attached to them, and why blank is a safe answer.
Using these elsewhere
Copy them into a brief, a TAP class, a unit newsletter, a VSO handout or a blog post. The only ask is a visible credit with a link back so people can find the source and check it themselves.
Every diagram page has a ready-made credit line and an embed snippet. If something is wrong or out of date, tell us on the feedback page and it gets fixed.