I WAS in the army, long ago. You don't need MOST of what you carry with you. But some things you just always have with you when doing certain things. Like a watch when you're working. Even if you never wear a watch ANY other time.
As a side note, the Pinebook Pro is now taking pre-orders again. And this time they have an ANSI keyboard option. So that'll be my next laptop sometime near Christmas. 1080p screen, 14", ANSI (US like) keyboard, black, metal shell. It's been a long while since I had a laptop with a metal case. And it runs linux by default.
https://www.pine64.org/