Other items I've heard are handy are phone cards and cheap watches.
DSN lines are toll-free for the guys whose homes are near bases, but for most of the country, home is still a long distance call from a base for which the DSN operator will need a card number. BTW, if you're deploying and are wondering what the heck I'm talking about, email me and I've got a good primer on how to use these things and which DSN numbers work better than others.
Also, the sand eats through watches quick and it's nice to have 2 or 3 to hang off your pack, LBE, whatever. Nothing fancy, just something to tell time.
And you can never have too many ziplock bags or electrical tape.
Thanks for restarting the thread, I'm guessing this is the sort of thing Rick had in mind anyway.
SD
