I'm at US Airways. We have a permanent bid every three months or so. One of these happened in my first week of class and everybody in my class on the Airbus was able to change to their first choice domicile for what that's worth.

I'm prior military like yourself and for me, I will always commute to this airline because life is too short to live somewhere you don't like (I'm not a fan of any of the US bases). I spent 12 years doing that in the Air Force and I'm done. We're moving back to where we grew up and will stay there until our kids are grown up.

And one other thing for the OP. You said you are looking into "some" of the majors. I'd recommend going ugly early and applying to ALL of the majors at the very least. I had my heart set on certain airlines a few years prior to getting out, but as my DOS got closer with no calls I cared less and less. I received precisely one call out of the 10 or so Airlines that I applied to over this last year.