I like 1 better than 1a, although there would be advantages to, say, having Military-enabled stockpiles as a variant of 1a (perhaps call it 1b?), I feel 1 would be most effective whether you have 1a/b or not, since you would not want your stock of military equipment on the front lines because of danger to its suppliers but niether would you want it back where dwarves run back to the fort to replace or upgrade their equipment. Speaking of replace or upgrade, in the event a dwarf actually completely loses a piece of equipment there might be a related option "replace equipment" next to "upgrade equipment".
A related form of 2, say 2a, could be a separate order, "fall back", distinct from station in that it takes higher priority over immediate combat by essentially saying "only fight in defense, not just 'cause the enemy's right next to you, until you get to this position [selected just like being stationed]." Station and Fall Back would be essentially the same when the dwarves have not encountered enemies, but when enemies are encountered Station would basically be "rendevous here when you're done with the punk you're fighting" whereas Fall Back would be "defend yourself as necessary to get back to here". There could conceivably be an inverse form, Charge, which means in essence "push through to here, killing what you can along the way" (although that may or may not turn out to be any different than Stationing your squad behind the enemy line).
You may wish to rename the thread to give some idea of the specific solutions -- something like, "Military Fixes: Controlling Pickup Equipment and Better Stationing".