You're allowed to put retreads on your steer wheels. I've read the federal language and the restriction about retreads only applies to busses (a simple Google search will confirm if you doubt). However, tire places in my area won't mount retreads on the steers. If you do your own wheel mounting you would be good here, legally.
Also, commercial tires tend to last WAY longer than military tires. Premium commercial tires can be retread several times, this probably won't affect many military truck people.
If you collect your own tire casings (used tires) to be retread you can save some money, maybe $50 - $100/tire. When I bought my retreads I worked directly with a Goodyear distributor, he was able to give me advice on which treads lasted better than others (I chose a tread commonly used by concrete trucks, he collected casings for me (I decided to go with premium since the price cost at that point wasn't a big deal to me). And when they did a set of 8 retreads I met one of their trucks that came within 30 miles of me and we off loaded my tires, at no additional charge.