Thanks for the pix, NC. I have been without my copy of this journal for a while and got it back into my hands. Indeed, every page bears that pattern on its back. I had apparently been thinking of one of the journal's blank pages which made the pattern more obvious.
Some notes about the physical construction and collection of the journal:
The journal is comprised of 10 sections. Each section is made of 5 sheets of paper folded in half and individually bound, forming 20 pages. The entire journal is therefore made of 50 sheets of paper which form 200 pages.
The only section which contains torn out pages is the 7th section. (Naturally.)
The sections are physical boundaries, not logical ones. In other words, Halsey's daily entries will flow from the end of one physical section to the beginning of the next one. The most illustrative example might be the flow from Page 19 of Section 1 to Page 1 of Section 2 which flows mid-sentence from "If this material were used as a sheath or suit of artificial muscle, when worn it could" to "effectively increase the linearly coupled strength of a gen-II ORION soldier tenfold or more." (Page 20 of Section 1 contains notated illustrations relevant to the text.)
The journal contains a collections of ephemera. The paper records are indexed with UNSC/ONI reference numbers. All of these reference numbers are prefixed with "X16-" and end with "-01".
Some ephemeral items are inserted into the journal outside of the journals back-board pocket. When these items are inserted, they are always inserted to the exact center of a section (between Page 10 and Page 11.) The only exception to this is the enclosed map of Reach (ref# X16-69929-01). This is inserted either at the very beginning or very end of the journal. I believe it was at the end. (Confirmation, anyone? I'm not entirely sure I put mine back where I originally found it!)
Section 1 contains the "Intersystem News" pamphlet dated Aug 21, 2511. (ref# X16-69926-01)
Section 6 contains a postcard-sized photo of "EXHIBIT B NO. 56" (ref# X16-69927-01)
Section 9 contains the letter from Holland to Halsey concerning information about Jorge. (ref# X16-69928-01)
The pocket contains:
A Spartan Patch
Halsey's ID Badge (ref# X16-69870-01)
Security Photo of Noble Team (ref# X16-69910-01)
Mjolnir MKIV Schematic (ref# X16-69914-01)
Detail of Jacob Keyes' Iroquois Maneuver written on the back of "Havadi Goodwan" paper (ref# X16-69930-01)
Astro-photograph of "A new threat?" (ref# X16-69909-01)
"Intersystem News" pamphlet dated Apr 6, 2526. (ref# X16-69898-01)
ONI Confidential Directorate Memorandum (ref# X16-69912-01)
"Intersystem News" pamphlet dated Apr 6, 2550. (ref# X16-69899-01)
Letter from Adam Virag to Halsey (ref# X16-69911-01)
Notes re: Kurt-051 dated February 5, 2518 prepared by Halsey (ref# X16-69913-01)
Biochemical Analysis of S-117 (ref# X16-69908-01)
ORION candidate 047 screening results (ref# X16-69904-01)
Candidate Record: Aagard, Caleb F (ref# X16-69901-01)
Candidate Record: Pernault, Carris R (ref# X16-69902-01)
Candidate Record: Trevelyan, Kurt M (ref# X16-69903-01)
This amounts to a total of 20 items of ephemera.