If you were in SDF, you certainly could have bid to FE and downgraded to stay at your base. For most they had a choice. Even with the pay cut, the cost of living is so much lower in Ky, the money is close to the same. I moved to ANC to avoid the commute. Those who have difficult wive/husbands, bid down ,stop complaining, and let me move up in the base where I want to live and work.