Hey guys. As most of you know, I am in vacation mode right now, enjoying making my own schedule. I will write a post about that soon and what I have been doing in the army until now. But for now, with all my free time, I was thinking of posting information that would have helped me with my integration into the army. Therefore without further ado, here is the insider packing list that I would recommend to lone soldiers and this will give you guys some details and particulars of army life..
Bag: Don't take too many! There is no reason for taking more than one personal backpack to the army-seriously. The only time I can think of for taking two personal bags (on top of the two kit bag bets and one kit bag aleph) is if you are going to visit someone for the upcoming Shabbat and want to keep your Shabbat stuff separate from your gross army stuff.
I prefer taking one big personal bag with me to the army (I use the Garin Tzabar hiking backpack) for two reasons. The first is because backpacks have multiple pockets, allowing me to compartmentalize: valuable stuff such as the choger (army i.d. card), wallet, cellphone, iPod etc, kumta (beret), and keys in one, shoe polish and hygiene (toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, shaver if you need it, etc) in another, and so on and so forth. Other people prefer using the big green kitbag aleph. After bakum, they take it home, unload it and then use it for their personal stuff. I don't and this is the second reason- because I am in Nachal and we don't have personal rooms, I have nowhere to store change of clothes, hence my kitbag aleph functions as my shelf.
Clothing: Not including the first week, you really don't need a lot. This is what I bring back and forth as laundry in my bag to the army. Three white undershirts- one for madei aleph (dress uniform), two for madasim (workouts). Three pairs of thick army socks and two pairs of thin white socks for workouts. Two madei bet (normal uniform). One pair of sweatpants and sweatshirt, wool cap, neckwarmer, and gloves- for sleep in winter and indispensable for guard duty. One green thermal undershirt.
Hygiene: Deodorant, shower gel/shampoo, anti-fungal powder for the feet-believe me you don't want athletes foot, GoldBond-every guy will understand, toothbrush, toothpaste, and floss-extremely important.
Misc.: Any snacks or books that I have room for and my Tefillin (that I need for Friday and Sunday morning prayers).
Its not a lot, my bag is always fairly lightweight. The general principle is to pack as little as possible. Hope this helps to any future lone soldiers.
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