Welcome to the Community!
You have a very common challenge, and it can be made a little more simple if you categorize both sides of the credit card payment as a Transfer and then Hide the category from your reports. Your credit card purchases are likely being captured when you are categorizing each of the transactions as they hit your card and are pulled into your sheet. Including your card payment as an expense is double counting these purchases against your cash flow.
Here is a great discussion that may help.
Thanks for your military service, Dustin. Proud of you.