I know a lot of military families living quite well in the SoCal area. It isn't for everyone, myself included, and I think that everything there is ridiculously expensive, but unless you have some notion of how big a house you must have or what kind of car you must drive, or you have to save/ invest half your salary per year for retirement, then you can make it just fine. If you do need to accomplish the items above then you probably need to live somewhere else in the country to achieve them at the same pay. Choices.

USMCFLYR