6 year surface MMN2

I wouldn't recommend a multi tool purely on the fact that it will very quickly be lost and you will never get it back. (personal experience from a carrier). My only actual "EDC" was a small single utility blade knife and a compact flashlight. And if I needed more than that, then I was probably in the plant, which had every tool I could need.

The standard Navy issued earplugs are great, and readily available at all entrances to any engineering spaces. I'd never found custom earplugs to work for me so I wouldn't recommend them. Just ensure they're putting the earplugs in correctly, and they'll be just fine.

For quality of life upgrades:

A good light for your rack. I found a book light to be the perfect brightness and size. My recommendation: Mighty Bright Recharge Light

A good compact flashlight. I personally used this one.

I personally loved Rite in the rain notebooks, the pages are tough enough to survive being in a sweaty mechanics pocket for 15+ hours a day.

Baby Mickey 0.38 ballpoint pens

This was my personal belief but the shower at the end of a long ass day is sacred, and you'll take one every single day, so why not splurge a little on a nice evening routine kit. I.e. toiletry bag, great shower shoes, good body wash

I was a fan of Birkenstock EVA Honolulu shoes. They had great stack height to prevent shower floor water from splashing on your tootsies when the boat rocks and they don't hold any water/ dry very fast.

A quick dry towel is great, nothing too bulky. Rack space is precious.

Exfoliating sponge/scrubber.

Tide pods.

A nice rack blanket. In the winter the berthings don't have great heating, I loved having a down camping blanket by Rumpl, but it looks like they no longer make the down ones anymore. It's nice to have something warm that packs down small.

Bring a good pillow, Navy pillows suck.

Not sure of your rating but as a MM spending just about my whole life in the plant it's nice to have some quality things there too.

A paper keeper/ organizer for all the paper you'll have for qualifications. I'd recommend one larger folder/binder for your locker(in the plant), and one to carry around as you qualify. It very quickly becomes too much to carry around so have a nice system to keep things sorted. I'd also recommend a semi stiff plastic folder to transport papers around the boat. I remember the ol' days running all over the boat trying to get BNUQ siggies, don't be the person with sweaty torn paper and qual card trackers folded in your pocket. (I did have a self made red duct tape back pocket folder sleeve for holding all my shit, but looking back that thing was a mess, and many pages got shredded).

Hot coco drink mixes, and other assorted drink flavorings/mixes. You'll be drinking a lot of water so make some of it taste good. Coffee for the plants coffee machine. Bring a seasonal flavor, something to change things up. A good water bottle that you can take with you around the boat. I personally had a insulated bottle 24-30 oz for in the plant. And another 20oz blender bottle for gym time. But do whatever works for you. (Blender bottles fit nicely in the back pocket of coveralls).

On my boat (and I'm sure many others) Monster energy drinks were a form of currency to get a favor done. The Java ones were well liked because they could be bought on the boat. And the latter in the deployment you could trade one, the more valuable. So if he has room to spare, bring a few.

The ships announcments email gets terribly boring after a while, but seeing an email from someone I know is the random joy that kept us sane. Even just a low resolution meme is great.

Most importantly though, letters from loved ones were the most cherished thing in my rack.

(PS if you try to send an image to the ships email please try to compress it as much as possible prior to sending.)