Does Your Military Training Transfer? Licenses and Certifications by MOS and State

Layer one: the DoD COOL crosswalk. The Department of Defense Credentialing Opportunities On-Line program maintains, for every Army MOS, Navy and Coast Guard rating and NEC, Air Force AFSC, and Marine Corps MOS, a list of the civilian credentials that relate to that job. Each link is labeled most related, some relation, or other; carries an attainability rating (how close your military training gets you to the credential's education and experience requirements); flags whether the service will fund the exam while you are still in; and marks the handful of credentials with a formal gap analysis. We pulled the full tables for all five services (Air Force data comes from the Air Force COOL system on AFVEC) and show them grouped and ranked, with the credential type (national certification, federal license, state license, or national exam) because type decides whether a state can get in the way at all. National certifications and federal licenses transfer everywhere. State licenses are where the answer changes at the border.

Layer two: the state transfer tables. For the licensed occupations that vary by state, we built hand-verified tables for all 50 states and DC. Commercial driving: the federal skills-test waiver rules in 49 CFR 383.77(b), the eight Even Exchange jobs in 383.77(a), each state's participation, its form, its agency, and its quirks. Nursing: whether a state has a statute, board rule, exam-eligibility route, or approved bridge program that lets a medic or corpsman reach the NCLEX-PN, and how narrow it is. Law enforcement: whether the POST body waives or shortens the academy for military police, and the conditions. Fire: whether the state accepts IFSAC and Pro Board certifications, which the DoD Fire Academy issues. EMS: NREMT use, EMS Compact membership, and any military-specific process. Trades: the licensing board for electricians, HVAC, and plumbers, whether the license is state or local, and any explicit military experience credit. And for every state, the general statute directing boards to credit military training, with expedited-license, fee-waiver, and universal-recognition flags plus the state's veteran licensing portal. Wave two and three (added September 2026) extend the state tables to security guard licensing, pharmacy technician registration, radiologic technology licensure, water and wastewater operator certification, teaching certification, surgical technologist, medical laboratory personnel, dental assisting, crane operator licensing, contractor licensing, boiler operator and stationary engineer licensing, private investigator licensing, CDL passenger and school bus endorsements, vehicle safety and emissions inspector licenses, fire alarm and low-voltage licensing, merchant mariner credentials with each state's charter and guide license, nurse aide (CNA) registries, respiratory therapy, veterinary technician, dispensing optician, corrections officer certification, real estate, and insurance producer licensing, each with the same 51-row, source-and-date structure: 31 occupations in all, plus federal-only cards for FAA, USCG, NRC nuclear, and commercial diving credentials.

The reverse view. Pick "I hold a credential" and the same state tables run the other way: each credential you check becomes a map of all 50 states and DC (honors it, with conditions, does not, unconfirmed), a sortable table, and a click-through to any state's full card. Verdicts still use your status, years, and the assumptions drawer, because the CDL waiver depends on what you drove and the MP waiver on the course you finished, not on the state alone. The states that honor a credential link straight into the Best State for Veterans tool so the next question, which of those states treats a veteran best on taxes and benefits, gets answered in the same sitting.

What it pays. Each state card and the map table carry a pay band from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey, May 2025 state estimates: the median annual wage and the 25th to 75th percentile range for the occupation the license leads to, in the state you picked, plus how many people hold that job there. The survey counts wage and salary employees only, so bands for contractors, private investigators, charter captains, and crane operators are labeled: the self-employed, who dominate those fields, aren't in it. Use the band to see what the credential is worth where you're going, then run the Salary Translator to see what you need to replace your military compensation.

Confidence flags and what this isn't. Every state row carries a source URL, a verification date, and one of three flags: verified (we read the statute, rule, or agency page and it says so), likely (a secondary source such as the FMCSA map as reported in the trade press, the 2021 IADLEST reciprocity handbook, or a search index of an official page that blocked us), or unknown (nothing found; the field is blank and says so). The FMCSA Even Exchange map, the Council of State Governments compact database, and several state agency sites block automated access, so those rows lean on the documents they publish elsewhere and on state pages. Nothing here is a licensing decision. The board, the DMV, the POST commission, and the state EMS office decide; this tool tells you what to ask them, which form to bring, and which statute to cite. Data stamp: September 9, 2026. COOL data refreshed monthly; state tables re-verified quarterly and whenever a reader flags a change.