Retiring overseas gets pitched as an escape to paradise, but the destinations that actually work financially for a retired service member share a few unglamorous traits: low currency-adjusted cost of living, functional and affordable healthcare, and a legal, renewable path to stay long-term (a proper retirement visa, not a tourist visa loophole).
Southeast Asia (Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam), parts of Central America (Panama, Costa Rica, Mexico), and a handful of Eastern European countries consistently show up as realistic options for a military retirement or disability income to stretch significantly further than it would in most of the U.S.
The honest tradeoff is distance from family, VA healthcare access (which generally doesn't cover routine overseas care), and the logistics of banking, taxes, and legal residency in a country whose systems you didn't grow up navigating. For some retirees that trade is absolutely worth it. For others, the better answer is a lower-cost domestic option that keeps VA healthcare and family proximity intact — Arkansas is one example worth comparing against before assuming overseas is the only way to make a fixed income go further.