Apparently you believe this LTC doctor is a pushover dimwit.
What makes you think that someone convinced him, as opposed to he (himself) coming to the conclusion that after seeking answers from his chain of command and his elected "representatives" as to weather or not Barry is NBC...and came up bubkis, that he didn't take it upon himself to go to this next level?
To paraphrase Humphrey Bogart: "He was misinformed."