I tend to be sort of traditional (when the mood strikes me and the price is right, hee hee)!
For our first anniversary, I gave DH a scrapbook, which he loved. I did some themed pages of his past football and baseball game tickets, plus pics of him with his guy friends, as well as a few pages of special occasions we'd celebrated during our first year, and of course promised to keep up with it over the years. I haven't completely kept to that promise, but have added a couple pages here and there to mark special times, such as when we got our first and second dogs (our "children"), and holidays when we've taken lots of pictures I could print out and put in the scrapbook. So it's been kind of a special thing that's carried on into the first few years of our marriage and that he likes.
Next on the idea of paper being the traditional 1st anniversary gift, I am thinking does your DH need business related items? If so you might look into getting him a money clip holder (engraved from Tiffany's or other store)--still paper related as it has to do with cash, lol! Or, a business card holder/case--again something special from T's or otherwise... but engraved from you to make it personal. OR, have you considered framed art? Could be "paper" if you think about where the canvas comes from...what about sports? A sports card or baseball card framed or encased that he would love? Just thinking out loud here...
ETA: crap, this is the second time tonight I haven't read in-depth and have missed a serious detail--with you I missed that your DH is in uniform and probably doesn't need anything business related, such as cards or even maybe a money clip! Jeez, if he doesn't use anything like that I'm sorry...