Well, I can tell you (as someone who just got out of the Army) that it does get EXTREMELY boring sometimes on deployment depending on what your job is. Any idea what his MOS is? I was a 25U (signal systems support specialist lol say that 5 times fast) and it was a whole lot of "hurry up and wait". I don't know if I would go for one of those systems though, the PSP I know for a fact breaks extremely easily and is not sand proof in the least lol. Honest to dog the best thing you can have in the desert is a nice weather proof digital camera or video camera (if that's in your budget). I didn't have one and I really wish that I did cuz some of my buddies got some great pictures during the "hurry up and wait" times.
Hope this helps (copyright Adam Wysocki)