New Mission.
New North.
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Northeastern Wisconsin is ready to welcome service members, veterans, and military families home. Meaningful careers, strong community support, four real seasons, and places where service is understood and valued.
From the Northwoods south to Lake Winnebago, and from the Wisconsin River east to the Lake Michigan shore. Click any county on the map or in the list below to see what it brings.
Click any county to see its card below. Counties shown at approximate geographic scale.
Pick any of the twenty counties above to see what it brings — anchor employers, lifestyle, veteran services, and whether the $5,000 relocation grant applies.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (2023).
* This county is eligible for the $5,000 relocation incentive. Move here from out of state and apply before moving to be eligible.
Marinette Marine, Mercury Marine, Bay Shipbuilding, Schreiber Foods, Kohler. Defense, manufacturing, paper, finance, healthcare.
Wisconsin GI Bill, property tax credit, and a state veterans home network among the most generous in the country.
Lake Michigan shoreline, the Northwoods, Door Peninsula, the Wolf and Wisconsin Rivers. Built for the outdoors.
The region's employer base is unusually deep for a non-coastal market, spanning defense shipbuilding, advanced manufacturing, paper and packaging, finance and insurance, and healthcare, with a network of four-year and technical colleges feeding all of them.
The Wisconsin GI Bill covers full tuition and fees at any UW or technical college for eligible vets, dependents, and spouses. You also get a property tax credit on your primary residence, and the state runs three veterans homes, including King Veterans Home, widely described as the largest skilled-nursing veterans home in Wisconsin.
You'll have Lake Michigan, the Northwoods, the Door Peninsula, the Chain O' Lakes, the Wolf and Wisconsin Rivers, the Peshtigo River, the Waterfall Capital of the great state of Wisconsin, the Ice Age Trail. This is what your weekends look like here.
Different stages of transition find different things here. Two quick questions and we will recommend three counties based on your situation and surface the employers and partners that matter most.
Pick the cohort that fits you best. You can change this later.
Pick as many as apply. We will weigh them when we rank counties for you.
Ranked for your stage and what you said matters most. Click any county to explore in depth.
*$5,000 relocation incentive. If you move from out of state to one of the eight starred counties, you could be eligible for a $5,000 relocation incentive. Verify your move and fill out the grant form before moving to receive it.
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For a region this size, the employer base is unusually deep. You are not picking between two manufacturers and a hospital. You are picking between defense shipbuilders, paper and packaging anchors, food processing, advanced metals, finance, and insurance.
Marinette Marine (Fincantieri, building the Constellation-class frigate for the Navy) is in Marinette County. Bay Shipbuilding (Fincantieri) is in Door County. Both are commute-distance to Brown County. Manitowoc Company (cranes, formerly Manitowoc Shipbuilding) sits on the Lake Michigan shore. These are veteran-friendly employers by default.
Mercury Marine in Fond du Lac. Kohler in Sheboygan. Georgia-Pacific, Schreiber Foods, KI, Green Bay Packaging in Brown. Oshkosh Defense and the paper industry in Winnebago. Waupaca Foundry. Plus a tight network of mid-size suppliers across all twenty counties.
NWTC, FVTC, NTC, MSTC, Lakeshore Tech, and Moraine Park cover the region's tech college needs. UW-Green Bay, UW-Oshkosh, Lakeland University, Marian University, St. Norbert College, and Lawrence University handle the four-year side. The pipeline is built for the employer base.
The state's veteran package is among the most generous in the country, and most of it works for relocating vets even if you did not serve in the great state of Wisconsin.
Wisconsin's Veterans and Surviving Spouses Property Tax Credit refunds property taxes on a primary residence for 100 percent disabled vets and certain surviving spouses. Renews annually.
Three state veterans homes — Chippewa Falls, King, and Union Grove — including King Veterans Home in Waupaca County, widely described as the largest skilled-nursing veterans home in Wisconsin. Iron Mountain VAMC sits just north of Florence and Marinette. Milwaukee VAMC serves the southern end. Green Bay, Appleton, Wausau, and Cleveland (Manitowoc) have CBOCs or vet centers.
The outdoor identity here is built around specific places people drive hours to visit. You would be living in them.
250 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline. The Door Peninsula. Lake Winnebago. Green Lake (the deepest natural lake in the great state of Wisconsin). The Chain O' Lakes in Waupaca. The Wolf, Fox, and Wisconsin Rivers. The Peshtigo River and the Waterfall Capital of the great state of Wisconsin. Hundreds of inland lakes throughout Northeastern Wisconsin.
The Menominee Forest. The Nicolet National Forest. The Northwoods proper from Langlade north. The Ice Age Trail running through the region. Snowmobile country in Langlade. Trail networks in every county.
Real winter, real spring, real summer, real fall. If you grew up in San Diego or Norfolk it will be an adjustment. If you grew up in the upper Midwest or did time at Fort Drum, Fort Wainwright, or any of the cold-weather posts, it will feel familiar.
Up to 128 credits at any UW or Wisconsin technical college, on top of Post-9/11. Available to veterans, surviving spouses, and dependents. Real money over a four-year degree.
Widely described as the largest skilled-nursing veterans home in Wisconsin, King Veterans Home sits on the Chain O' Lakes in Waupaca County. Real infrastructure for serious medical and end-of-life care, not a brochure line.
Defense shipbuilders (Marinette Marine, Bay Shipbuilding, Oshkosh Corporation/Oshkosh Defense), OEM-grade manufacturers, finance and insurance, healthcare. Most have active veteran hiring programs. Many run apprenticeship tracks with national workforce partners.
In alignment with: Wisconsin Veterans Chamber of Commerce, Marines For Life Network, Wisconsin’s Veteran Village, and Veterans 1st of NEW (tiny homes for veterans). The veteran infrastructure in this region is not new — we are connecting service members and military families to a network that already exists.
Tell us a little about where you are in your transition and what matters most. We will get back to you with a county-by-county read and connections to the right employers and partners.
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