According to something I read in the past, the fishing kits were for entertainment, and something to occupy time, while laying by an infested creek, waiting for the SAR. Heres a pic.
Here's the link for those survival kits. Still $60.00. http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/MIL1175-1.html
There's also a couple of reviews on the site, of the kit, from people that have bought them from CTD.
The kit is pretty cool but I wouldn't pay $60 for it, maybe as a collectible but not for use. You can get all brand new stuff from www.countycomm.com that is all contract military for dirt cheap. You just have to put it together yourself. I'd say you can get just about everything in that kit but all current issue for about $10. Just a heads up!
Sometimes it is bad form to bring up threads that have long since went to sleep. I just wanted to thank everyone for keeping the article alive on my website. I am Don Rearic, I wrote the article on this kit.
I also wanted to address a misconception which is in the last post to this thread. $10.00 couldn't purchase the Camillus pocketknife in this kit or anything like it. You couldn't get the high-quality compass in these old kits from CountyComm or elsewhere for $10.00.
These kits were really the best of the military survival kits I have ever examined. If you can get both sides of the "PIE," it's well worth $80.00
(And, no, I don't sell them and don't know anyone who has a supply of them.)