I got Fluxbuntu installed on the milspec laptop. It took a bit of work to make LOADLIN work, but once it did, it worked perfectly.

I can't quite say the same thing about the OS, though. That would be more my fault than the fault of the OS. It's very very streamlined and lean, so much so that the libs to make USB connections aren't quite installed. And I don't know how to install them properly. There are several layers of technology involved to make them work. The regular Ubuntu install will do that, though, so I think I'll try installing that next.