West Byfleet is recommended by all who have lived there but is popular so don't count on success. DE have a now out-of-date but handy guide to all the patches which they can send you electronically. Bushey Heath is right on the edge of that limit with a fairly painful commute and some of the houses are now falling apart. I wouldn't buy a house there - even if I could afford £250K for a nicotine-stained dump of a 2 bedroomed flat. Most of the thieves mentioned above live in Bushey; on the bright side the patch in Bushey has been sold and Watford is actually several miles away...
Not sure why the MOD would want to pay for a train ticket from Hitchin if there are quarters in London but hey, it is the MOD and they have no control over what they spend.
Kingston looks like something out of a horror movie but the area is probably nicer and you are right next to Richmond Park. Putney is generally full and looks quite cramped. I drove through Stanmore recently and assumed that the boarded up council estate was in fact the FQs - but I might be wrong, it might actually have been a derelict council estate!
My advice is to speak to DE allocations and find out what the options actually are so that you can make an informed decision - I recognise the 'long waiting lists and 90 mins line from 2 previous tours in the London area'. To be fair to the DE allocations staff, their incompetent colleagues in the maintenance department have allowed so many houses to become uninhabitable that there is always a shortage.
Use Google Street View to see what the place is like and get a good idea of commuting options using the TFL website. Have a look at likely engineering works - some of the lines are closed at weekends through to 2012 - so if you want to go into central London you may struggle slightly with (for example) the Jubilee Line. Speak to the current incumbent in your new job and find out what the score is on your likely working hours so that you can try to get some sort of work/life balance. I had none - I was in a long-hours job with a long commute.
Oh, and remember to have a lobotomy before turning up!
