I wasn’t even in the military at the time but have adhered to the policy since then. It’s great if there’s an emergency and you don’t want to sit in gas lines.
I drive 50,000 miles a year. The last time I ran out was in 1991. My wife picked me up at the airport. For some reason she had my moms car in which the dash lights had just gone out.
Since I couldn’t see the gauge I hadn’t given it any thought.
Over 1,000,000 miles since then without running out seems that not driving paranoid of running below 1/2 a tank seems like a good bet.
Plus that, I drive a company car with a fleet gas card. 10 mpg when pulling a trailer. A few months ago, thanks to a very long trip, I filled up 1/4 of a tank in a state with high gas price planning to fill completely 50 miles down the road. My card had reached its daily limit at three uses. The fourth one didn’t work as some sort of a fraud preventative.
In other words, if I tried your method, I couldn’t drive any of my common 600+ mile days.