Suggest deployment gift for my son?

Off-Topic Off Topic - Militaria
#1

My fine boy is going to start pre-deployment training next week for a peacekeeping mission, although he’d rather be going to Afghanistan (whereas our Army wisely doesn’t send reserve troops there, at least not since the last deployment of reserve troops resulted in some messy courts martials which demonstrated that the brilliant new Army prosecution service managed to charge our troops with offences which don’t exist and which baseless charges were dismissed by the judge pretty much as soon as the trials started).

He’s going to East Timor, which is a tropical monsoon climate. Anyone with experience in Vietnam or Malaya or similar places who can think of things they wish they’d had might be able to offer some suggestions about things he’d love to have to make life easier but which aren’t issued kit.

I’d appreciate also any suggestions for lasting gifts he might take with him, whether of a military or personal or any other nature, to enlarge the range of gifts we’re already thinking of.

#2

I think it depend on what your son does like.And what you usially do/did together with family what he might love. I mean hobby/sport/fishing/hunting or any families deeds.I think you have to present him a THING that will remind him the best times you’ve spent together. I can’t advice more correct, and doubt somebody else here can. Coz we don’t know much about your femaly’s life.So it might be just your personal choice.
Good luck for your son.

#3

Send him with your love, pride, and support.
And some of his favorite snacks… that seems to be welcome when our troops get “care” packages sent to them. I’m with Chevan, good luck to him, hope he stays safe.

#4

Chevan and navyson

Yeah, we’re doing all that, but I’m hoping someone can offer some suggestions which will be of real practical use to him (a bit like my discovery in an earlier age that our 1937 pattern basic pouches were perfectly designed to hold tins of canned fruit rather than the ammunition we weren’t issued with).

#5

That’s easy.

Sex.

Food.

Beer.

Martial arts.

Army.

Sex. Etc. (See above)

Not necessarily in that order as, during his last mixed martial arts fight on professional rules when he hadn’t trained anywhere hard enough he definitely didn’t look like he was thinking about sex, food, beer or Army while he was distressing his mother and me by being knocked about a bit in the last round. Although he did fracture his opponent’s eye socket by a judged punch in the course of losing the fight on close points.

I figure that some of the old soldiers in here might offer some suggestions on things that a soldier in the tropics would love to have but which aren’t issued.

#6

Cheap laptop with a DVD drive? Most third world countries like that to all accounts have wall to wall vendors outside the gate selling pirate DVDs…

#7

Definitely non sexy but we were always requesting red cross parcels of socks and shreddies from family back home, they never seem to last a tour no matter how many you take, especially if you have the local dhobbie service.

Being an ex Brit Squaddie from a few years ago, if he has not acquired or been issued then extra water bottles/ camel back. For when you are out in the ulu in the hot and humid season a chemical instant ice pack is useful for heat problems and occasionally injuries (break a bag containing one chemical and mix with another and you get instant cold).

#8

Candy, beef jerky, quick read books, (we were always reading Mack Bolan, Remo the Destroyer, Sgt Rock comics, weird war, stuff like that. books on cd, or tape, ) messages from home on dvd so he can see you all, There are dedicated dvd players that are fairly small, so he can take it along with him. Lots of letters from home, and little gifts for no particular reason. If you send things like lotions, or deoderant, make sure they are unscented.
During the Cold War, we were just happy to get anything really, it is the thought that counts.

#9

East Timor ?

Then it’d better be lots of condoms, extra strength & worn in pairs.
Chilli for the above.

Alternatively a section of inner tube knotted at one end only.

#10

I never would have guessed East Timor would have required such NBC gear…

#11

A supply of Gin, and extra tonic in case of mosquitos. Some type of medicated powder for skin, feet, etc. very handy in the hotter climates . And lots of extra socks. Though its a hot climate, wool may still be best as it absorbs alot more than other fabrics, without feeling wet.

#12

I would suggest something like a small radio. One no bigger than your hand that runs off batteries so he doesn’t have to worry about finding a workable plug socket.

#13

Thank you all for your sound suggestions, which I’ll follow up.

Socks got mentioned a few times. The current issue are pretty good but I don’t know how they’ll go in the tropics. I’ll get him some of these desert boot socks and some other Thorlo socks to see how they go in the tropics. http://www.thorlo.com/combat-boot-socks.php. I’ve even found (claimed) leech proof socks. I could send him some of those while he’s doing pre-deployment training because we used to get leeches on us in the same training area and it’s nowhere near the tropics. But I’ll just let him get used to having the blood suckers on him, and learning how to get them off, as it’s good training.

As for Cuts’ suggestion, it might be too complicated for my boy to follow in moments of excitement. It would ruin the moment, and more, if he put the chili on first and knotted the inner tube after putting it on. :wink: :smiley:

#14

But chili powder is invaluable as an STD threat warning.

As you know and in contrast to your halcyon days of youth, the modern, more resilient strains and types of knobrot are of such a nature that now people really can fcuk themselves to death.

#15

This is all news to me.

If I put chili powder on my knob (which, I have to say, would require a great deal of encouragement from several people holding me at gunpoint) does it fire up on an unseen chancre and tell me I’ve got the pox, or is it intended to have a similarly visible galvanising effect on the diseased recipient of my urgent attentions when inserted into her (or, with due deference to equal opportunity issues, his) pleasure cave, thus alerting me that an immediate retreat is advisable?

#16

Nope, the idea is to wear two condoms with the chilli powder in between - thus providing instant warning should either of them break! Oddly enough this is not something I’ve ever felt the need to try myself…

#17

Might work with natural types of condoms, but not with latex, two layers of latex will just shred each other in short order.

#18

Is this the voice of experience? :wink: :smiley:

Maybe the chili powder acts as a lubricant between the two surfaces? Or, more appropriately, as a grinding agent. :wink:

Anyway, what are natural types of condoms? The sheep gut or whatever it was that Casanova used a few centuries ago? I can’t get that nowadays except on the best quality sausages, of the minced meat and offal type mystery bags intended to be grilled and eaten when cooked, not the ‘hanging from your groin and say hello to my little friend’ type. (When I was working as a railway shunter in the late 1960s and going onto the docks where all sorts of institutionalised theft and thuggery were normal, the wharfies -stevedores in US - used to pinch 44 gallon drums of sheep gut sausage skin as they commanded a decent price on the black market.)

I haven’t seen any natural condoms on my supermarket shelves where the condoms are, quite logically, placed between personal lubricants and mouthwash. I’ve noticed this while looking for razors and shaving cream, which are all that are of any use to me these days.

#19

Just relating what the MFG of condoms say about the latex version. A google search reveals that Lamb intestine is what “natural” condoms are made from.:shock: (sounds a bit sheep shaggy to me, )

#20

You may have stumbled upon a New Zealand site, where such things are highly valued. ;):smiley:

http://amazingaustralia.com.au/kiwi_jokes.htm