I know that some of us collect/find military surplus equipment. Ever find funky stuff? https://www.dropbox.com/s/gxbgdxyecgl5mvk/yugo_m48_pouches.mp4
Thinking back to when I was a Boy Scout (1970s), we were taught to use regular cotton balls for fire starter stuff if we only had flint-and-steel kits, or a magnifying glass or anything other than matches, etc. We always had lighters or matches We used to use birch bark, back in the day. Jute twine? But check out this old broad dropping some pro tips... Eeesh... Bonus info: I have a couple of K-98s that were captured and modified by the Yugoslavian government after 1945. One of them had some rope/twine stuffed into the recoil bolt on the nut-side, to take up slack. I kept it there. It's kind of cool, and shows how soldiers made field modifications. It shoots fine.
I remember back in the 90's in Italy. There were Russian "tourist" buses driving all over making scheduled stops- not on any special tourist sites but just on the side of the road. They would all march out and spread blankets at the side of the bus and lay down tons of military stuff. The usual medals, hats, emblems, patches, watches and pocket knives some jackets and gloves. But some of the "tourists" had the real neat stuff: monster Russian Navy binoculars 10X50 and larger, nigh vision googles single and dual oculars, complete 35mm SLR cameras with lenses, looked like Nikon and Zeiss knock-offs and other radio gear. I just knew I should have bought some when I could!
Really? You were lucky to be stationed there. Oh, those Italian ladies! There's that timeless phrase: Pezza di figa (not politically correct now At the end of WW2, most of the Zeiss factories were in -- let's use our old US term -- East Germany; I think in Jena. Some of the machinery and personnel were relocated to the Ukrainian and Russian Republics, of course. I think a lot of the best "consumer" Soviet camera factories/works were in Ukraine.
Can you get a passport to Syria (or Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya or the Beqaa Valley. Maybe Kiev and points east...)? That's the new Vietnam... Go there and tell them: "I am a friend of Barack, and also of Donald, and also of the next president." Then you can receive all of the weapons you want, LOL