Well I was joking with the "fall off the truck" comment. You do have a point in that there's a very high chance the sergeant would go to prison for stuff like that.
Actually, from what I have heard from some friends/relatives that have been in the military, there is a staggering amount of theft of gear. People steal things for profit, and people steal things becuase someone stole from them and they need to have one, and people steal things becuase they want to have a backup when someone steals whatever they were issued. Yes, you can go to prison for it, and yes people do it all the time anyway. My father once told me their motto in the air force was "be well equiped", meaning grab whatever the hell you can and cashe it somewhere, because someone will try to run off your *whatever* if you aren't looking, and if the military issues you a piece of gear and you claim it came up missing they actually charge you the money for it.
Add to this the hardcore ciminals, many of whom are in uniform, who will do the risky stuff like sell military grade weapons on the side, and its not to hard to say that something "fell off a truck". The guy who did it may have got caught eventually and ended up in a tiny, dank, lightless cell somewhere, but the character was long down the road at that point.
