Those things you don't really need, but take anyway

[pmulcahy11b]

Coffee was something I could readily trade, or just make one of my guys feel better for a little while. And I'll admit to "scrounging" AA and D batteries wherever I could.

Oh, and I ditched the standard Army flashlight for a Mini-Maglite early on.

[weswood]

By any chance was your Gunny from the Wing Although, a gunny seems to grow a coffee mug out of his hand anyways

It was when I was in the Reserves, an Infantry Battalion.

[headquarters]

PX cold medicine

there were these blue packs of "cold medicine" pills which contained a decent amount of effedrine at the PX And of course the no-doze stuff.

Chocolate and cigarettes in abundance.

[pmulcahy11b]

there were these blue packs of "cold medicine" pills which contained a decent amount of effedrine at the PX And of course the no-doze stuff.

If you were an NCO or officer, you could ask for a "cold pack" from the medics, and they had those in them.

[Abbott Shaull]

It seemed like everyone brought out their cassette/walk-man with them and fair share brought out books to read. Most of us had mini-mag instead of the bent neck flash light. Some carried both! The trick was how/where to pack the flashlights and walk-man on jumps so they were broken during the landing of your ruck and your PLF after the jump.

It was in imperfect science since what worked one time might not always work....Then again I have a story about a E-5 who always used the regulation small ruck sack that were issued, and seemed to have everything on the packing list in it. While the rest of the company seem to struggle in packing it into their large rucksacks...Oh boy.

[headquarters]

Discman

It seemed like everyone brought out their cassette/walk-man with them and fair share brought out books to read. Most of us had mini-mag instead of the bent neck flash light. Some carried both! The trick was how/where to pack the flashlights and walk-man on jumps so they were broken during the landing of your ruck and your PLF after the jump.

It was in imperfect science since what worked one time might not always work....Then again I have a story about a E-5 who always used the regulation small ruck sack that were issued, and seemed to have everything on the packing list in it. While the rest of the company seem to struggle in packing it into their large rucksacks...Oh boy.

Plugged in to the vehicle com system ( dont recall the specific box we used -standard Nato internal com/radio system equipment) .
that way we could listen to music in the headphones in the crew helmets as long as the key was set in the middle ( neutral) .
As a cmdr I got to be a dj as well. 90s techno was useful to stay up and alert on long night patrols.

[pmulcahy11b]

The trick was how/where to pack the flashlights and walk-man on jumps so they were broken during the landing of your ruck and your PLF after the jump.

During my cherry jump at Bragg, we had one guy in my squad who had an interesting PLF experience -- somehow (he was never sure), his canteen broke open during his PLF. He didn't have a corresponding bruise or anything on him, so it was a bit mystifying. The only thing we could figure out was that it had a sort of hairline crack in it already, and during the PLF it hit just right to break open the crack completely.

[HorseSoldier]

In 20th Group one of the support companies had the way-too-much-time-on-their-hands cherry jump helmet painted bright red complete with some glued on stem. It vanished into the tree line near the DZ one jump when (if I recall right) a new lieutenant parted ways with it as he exited the aircraft.