How about some light reading? James Herriott's books are hilariously funny and very well written. They were popular ~40 years ago, so maybe FIL might be interested in re-reading old friends.

Would he like to garden indoors? Two gifts that I was absolutely delighted with —as a non-gardener — were an amaryllis plant that grew incredibly fast, so it was fun to watch, and a set of potted herb seeds, so I enjoyed a winter windowsill garden.

In the useless but potentially fun pile: a Matchbox version of his MG?

OP here again--bought two challenge coins, got him on the WWII memorial registry, bought two books in large print and am working on finding the others in large print. Thank you!

OP here--thank you for all the book ideas and non-book ideas!

Going to the links now. This is the best of DCUM, thank you again!

You can also make sure he is logged as someone who served in WWII for the WWII memorial registry:
https://www.wwiimemorial.com/

I know you asked for book ideas - but another idea is you can go downtown to the Navy Memorial visitor center and get a gift there.

They have Challenge Coins - which became a thing more recently. They are not expensive - but would be very meaningful:
https://shipsstore.navymemorial.org/collections/challenge-coins/products/us-navy-retired-served-with-pride-coin

https://www.amazon.com/Shark-Drunk-Catching-Rubber-Dinghy/dp/0451493486 Lots of on the water fishing action (in Norway), lots of stuff about sea. I really enjoyed this book.

https://www.amazon.com/Little-Heathens-Spirits-During-Depression/dp/0553384244 I don’t know if he enjoys reminiscing about How Things Used To Be, but this one talks about that in one small corner of the world. Mentions gardening, mentions her brother’s service in WWII.

Has he read Captain Blood by Raphael Sabatini? It's an old school swashbuckling pirate story but he might be into it if he likes fiction/that kind of thing (the main character is a retired-solider-now-doctor which is why I thought of it).

The Boys on the Boat is a great read. I'd get the large print version of whatever you buy. My grandmother read all the way through her 90s, but she needed the large print AND a magnifying glass.

I'm impressed he is still reading.

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by the incomparable Laura Hillenbrand.

It's a biography of World War II veteran Louis Zamperini, a former Olympic track star who survived a plane crash in the Pacific Theater, spent 47 days drifting on a raft, and then survived more than two and a half years as a prisoner of war (POW) in three Japanese POW camps.

Have you asked him?

If he has an iPhone, maybe set him up for an audible subscription so he can download audiobooks, especially if he struggles at all with eyesight?

Amazon has Editor’s Picks for military history books. I haven’t read them but maybe check out these:

Damn Lucky (Mauer)
Against All Odds (Kershaw)
The Last Hill (Drury)

FIL is coming to our house for Christmas. He's from across the country so anything we get him should be packable (or easy to ship back separately).

He's bad with tech so I'm thinking books. But what books?

He's former Navy WWII and then did reserve, and very mentally into that veteran world (e.g. speaks in military time, goes to shop at the base, etc). He is also a retired doctor. He likes to garden. Has a very old MG in his garage.

If anyone has any ideas, I'd appreciate it!