I know when I was in the military I met people who absolutely raved about Alaska and how much they would like to go back there. It's not cheap, but ANC has everything a big city in the USA would as far as movies, restaurants, etc. Now, flying back to the CONUS to visit family and friends would be a longish trip, of course, but not that much of an ordeal. There's nothing wrong with Republic either, I know that the majors have been hiring from them quite a bit for UA, WN, etc. but the work at Ravn sounds a bit more interesting to me for a first gig.