Being posted close to where you come from/live for your first tour is not necesserily a good idea.
Your first few years are all about finding your feet in your new life, making friends, and getting into all of the broader aspects of Army life. You dont want to be going home to mum/dad/girlfriend/boyfriend/pet hamster when ever you have free time.
I can absoutely guarantee that if your first tour is in Kinloss you will be a far better person, and better solider, in three years time than if you end up back in Colchester.
I fully endorse those sentiments. As a london lad, my first posting was...in london... fine, 3 years in familure surroundings, a relative easy existence, even with several trips abroad attached to other formations, however.......In BAOR during the height of the cold war, my first posting to a Div HQ, a fully functioning regiment, was a real eye opener, the previous 3 years stood for nothing, I was thrown into a situation that was totally alien to me, i became a raw recruit again, simply beacause my previous experience had been feather bedded, with no real comprehension of what the army was all about. Do not get a home posting, it does you no favours. The dangers facing the modern soldier are different to my day, but dangers do exist, and those regiments that are equipped to face them are always on high alert, and in constant training for any task required of them, that's where you should be posted, a working regiment. That's where you will get on the job first hand knowledge of your trade, under all conditions, in all weathers, and if required under fire, go for it.
(I realise that what i have just posted, will leave me open to some severe criticism. I accept that, but that is how I see it, from my own experience, back in the stone age.)