Don’t look at the Eglin area. It’s nice, lovely country, but there aren’t jobs here. The company my husband worked for laid off several hundred people back in April, we’re trying hard to get something somewhere else. If there are any jobs here, there’s plenty of local unemployed engineers trying to get in.
There are unemployed engineers all over the country. But as someone who used to supervise dozens of what I consider to be the “best and the brightest” in the DoD, I can tell you that not all engineers are the same, and not every unit and/or contractor is looking for what you might assume they're looking for in an engineer.
I'm sorry to hear that husband lost his job. But the fact is that Eglin is exactly the type area it sounds like this young man might be looking for. And if he's as sharp as his “friend” indicates he might do very well for himself.
I doubt that he'll be moving his furniture before he's received a job offer anyway. So why not advise him to look to the best option, rather than the “safest” option?