Crowe:

I've dug fighting positions with an e-tool, both hasty and standing with cover, and also with a full shovel off a 6X6. Latter is FAR easier, as I'm sure you know (!). Typically on FTX (Camp Beaurgard in Louisiana or Ft. Polk) the trick was to dig your position where someone else had dug one before and filled it in. But when you had to dig virgin ground in the dry season... my back just started aching from the memory.

I did chop down 2"-3" saplings with my US e-tool, so it did work as an ad-hoc ax. We often used ours as a monopod stool. (Fix the shovel blade (tight!) at 90 degrees, place handle on ground with shaft perpinducular to the same, and place your bottom on the flat of the blade.)

As for my favorite military kit, I use a US miliatry canteen/cup as my water bottle of choice, and I still keep a poncho and liner handy. They are, after the p-38 and 550 cord, the some of the most versitile kit the US military ever developed. I'm still torn between by BW Mess tin and Swedish satinless steel one. And then there's the British mess tins and Pattern 58 water bottle... O, the choices.

.....CLIFF
(like, who else?)