The antenna described in this thread has been utilized by the military
for simple, easy to erect and fairly inexpensive field use.

Yes that is very true. However, what the military needs, and what us hams are
trying to do is not that similar. What I would like as a ham is 100% of my rf
radiated, especially when I am mobile. The military wants to communicate, and
they don't care how the efficiency of the antenna system factors in to all
this.
In an old textbook of mine, the military wanted an automatic antenna tuner
that would match 20KW to a 35' whip 2-30 MHZ. At 2MHZ the whip was very
inefficient, and probably glowed in the dark. But they could communicate by
the brute force method. I guess it depends on whether your goal is just to
communicate, or communicate the most efficient way.
73 Gary N4AST