If you're at an established base, net connectivity isn't an issue. The same connection that provides net connectivity does phones and other comm. This will be kept up as a matter of necessity.

Bandwidth is crap, however. You won't be streaming music or movies. When I was at a rather small, forward base, what I did was telnet/ssh to a pre-setup stateside linux box with an ncurses (read, text based) AIM client installed on it. It's low bandwidth, and generally not filtered. Worst case, setup your stateside box to sit on port 80, which is NEVER entirely blocked.

How useful this all is of course depends on how often you can get a laptop on the network. I was a comm guy, in fact, the comm guy responsible for local infrastructure, so, a drop to my tent was a given, and I brought my own laptop. Depending on your job, you'll get more or less time at a computer, I know most shops had at least one computer in their tent/structure. Since telnet is a standard tool, you don't have to install anything.

Best of Luck!

Heh, Fellow Iowan here. That item made me laugh out loud. Personaly, I voted NO. I LIKE the fact that the Iowa constitution, as written, dissallows idiots from voting. It's only too bad that there's not a process for identifying them or enforcing the concept.