Whether that is the answer to your very good question, is unknown to me.

If you are quoting a news article, can you provide a link? Thanks in advance.

Problems off post with such things, or problems with those things being gone when not on official duty? Either way, he obeyed--why? Presumably, because he was coming back and not looking to get disciplined for having that stuff off post unauthorized, is my best guess. But yeah, why didn't they watch him and question him?

As both fact and entirety

Something just doesn't make sense. Soldiers can be Teabaggers too. And I think this is where the swift-boating is coming from.

So his CO may have presumed this was one of those...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014819538

But on the other hand, who authorizes a guy to take a walk on the front lines of Afghanistan?

And if so, it says more about THEM than Bergdahl....

First, the quote is from SGT Buetow...and he did not say Bergdahl asked about "if his leaving the unit with his weapon" would be a problem. Instead he reported that Bergdahl asked what would happen if his weapon and sensitive items 'went missing'.

Its an important distinction. The first phrase implies Bergdahl has a hobo pack on a stick resting on his shoulder, and he's practically on the way out the door.

The second phrase could be interpreted differently. My first question would be (panicked) "did you lose your weapon or a sensitive item?". Other than that, I would figure that Bergdahl had some crazy idea about selling them to locals, or intentionally losing them in some hope of getting out of duty...kind of like pulling a fire alarm at school, I would have thought he was angling to get the unit pulled out of combat duty to go look for a weapon, or something like that.

But soldiers have a lot of time on their hands, and come up with some weird questions.

Not saying he didn't, but considering how invested conservatives have been to paint Bergdahl as a traitor (and thus a bad deal to trade for him), there's a lot of elephant shit mixing with actual facts. Witness the "8 men died looking for him" claim, when it's not clear if any of those deaths had anything to do with Bergdahl.

Check your sources to be sure.

Lots of em..

It may have only registered in hindsight...