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

[pmulcahy11b]

What items did you or your characters take with them, even though you didn't really need them anyway?

When I was in, I always had a couple of books in plastic bags, as well as a cassette player and tapes (I preferred the cassettes because they were less likely to get damaged than CDs). Every other member of the squad also had a roll of toilet paper in their ruck.

[jester]

I could swear I saw a similair thread somewhere recently

Consumables:

PX Generic POP Tarts, six to a pack, enough for one each day.

1 tube of Chips Ahoy chocolate chip cookies and 1 tube of Ritz or generic rits they go much better with the MRE cheese especialy if its warm, almost like a can of cheeze whiz which was sometimes taken too.

1 bag of dried pinapple chunks, or papaya spears or mango pieces.

1 Bottle of Tobasco Sauce.

Apple or Orange <oranges travel better> snatched from the chow hall the last meal before heading out.

Occassionaly the half cans of stew, ravioli, viena sausages or similiar foods would be brought if they were available.

Ramen packs, occassionaly, usualy one or two packs would be stored in plastic in the top flap as a "just in case" measure

Walkman, spare batterys in a 1st Aid Kit case, and three tapes.

Mini Crossword puzzle book and mechanical pencil in plastic bag and some notepapper. Perfect for sitting on airport runways or landing zones or compartments/halls and decks of ships and goes into the pocket very easily.

One book in plastic with a larger letter sized notepad and a couple envelopes in fanny pack with two more books in the main pack with notepad, pends and pencils wrapped in plastic.

Minimag light X2 one in your pocket or webbing, the other in the top flap compartment of the pack, angle lights were crap!


Personaly Owned Binoculars, our issued ones were seldom issued.

Spare 2 liter canteen <we never got water resupply>

Camo compact, much easier to put on than those camo paint sticks, and the mirror worked wonders for shaving.

Personaly made 1st Aid Kit, Generic Tylenol, Tweezers, Nail clippers, Mole Skin, neosporin bandaids and allergy/cold tablets. Nothing more miserable than having a wicked dripping nose in the feild coupled with fever, anti fungal ointment.

LARGE container of baby powder, helped with jungle rot, athletes foot and other issues.

2 pilots flasks, water or a few times "other" beverages. Easily carried when you don't want to wear webbing and a canteen will bounce around to much in a cargo pocket.

Personal Survival Kit in a plastic cigarette box (tin foil, fishhooks, line, snare wire, 2 nails, 1 roll dental floss, split shot, 1 book waterproof matches wrapped in plastic, 1 mini lighter, 1 liter plastic ziplock baggie, 2 razor blades, MRE tissue, 4 bullion cubes, 2 trick birthday candles that relight.

Airline Pillow; grabbed it from a flight, a little bit of comfort in the field was always nice.

Can or more of OFF insect repellant when it could be found, issue stuff worked for crap.

Of course cigarettes, usualy 1 open and one unopened in the pockets, 2-4 packs in the ass pack and about as many in the top flap of the ALICE pack.

Metal Spoon aquired from the Chowhall! MRE spoons used to be to too small <remember the tiny white ones?>, or break <the long handled brown ones with brittle plastic>, or once was defective with just a handle. Screw that!

Sterno, found a can in Infantry School while on a working party in the field where it had been freezing all week. a sheild was made from cutting both ends off a tin can and poking vents along the top for air. So you could then have some heat, or cook your coffee or cocoa without giving off alot of light.

1 roll electrical tape

Small pocket knife

Issue items that always were brought in pockets or ass pack:

Gloves, watch cap and fieldjacket liner

Those were some of the none standard items I usualy carried. Nothing really major as weight was always a factor, and at times some of the above would not be available.

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by jester

I could swear I saw a similair thread somewhere recently

Yeah, come to think of it, we did do this a couple of weeks ago. Sorry for the duplication.

[pmulcahy11b]

For some reason, I've always thought that good toilet paper would become a valuable trade item in T2K. I once gave the players a big shipment of toilet paper as a "treasure find," and they were able to trade for valuable things like MREs, autocannon ammunition, a home-cooked meal, and even a little antibiotics.

[jester]

I was wondering the same thing, thats why I asked a very similiar question yesterday on the yahoo group. What inspired me to ask it though was my room mate came home with a huge bag of sour patch kids. And I was thinking, what other items that were luxuries that people would want. You know, that mocha java expresso latter from Starbucks? Godiva Chocolates? One of the very few nintendo game systems left in the world with the most recent Call to Duty or Battletech or what have you.

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by jester

I was wondering the same thing, thats why I asked a very similiar question yesterday on the yahoo group. What inspired me to ask it though was my room mate came home with a huge bag of sour patch kids. And I was thinking, what other items that were luxuries that people would want. You know, that mocha java expresso latter from Starbucks? Godiva Chocolates? One of the very few nintendo game systems left in the world with the most recent Call to Duty or Battletech or what have you.

My mother would probably trade you God for a cup of Mocha Latte from Starbucks in T2K...

[jester]

Originally Posted by pmulcahy11b

What items did you or your characters take with them, even though you didn't really need them anyway?

When I was in, I always had a couple of books in plastic bags, as well as a cassette player and tapes (I preferred the cassettes because they were less likely to get damaged than CDs). Every other member of the squad also had a roll of toilet paper in their ruck.

You didn't really need toilet paper? Damn, you guys were hard core I hope you guys water proofed it.

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by jester

You didn't really need toilet paper? Damn, you guys were hard core I hope you guys water proofed it.

Yep -- we put the roll in one of those gallon-sized Ziplock bags.