I just think we need to properly prioritize the importance of "procedures" and properly define what constitutes "lax", in the context of life-threatening injuries in combat. Saving the lives of wounded soldiers needs to be the absolute first priority for personnel whose duties involve rescuing and treating them, and to the extent that compliance with procedures would cause even a few seconds delay, the procedures need to be tossed out the window.
We could save military personnel from a lot of unnecessary paperwork, by having a blanket policy that any military-issued gear in the possession of a soldier who is critically wounded in combat, is automatically written off. If some of it happens to turn up in useable condition it can be recorded as such, but I have a big problem with the idea of emergency medical personnel in combat theaters being pestered with stupid forms they have to fill out and sign, in order to prevent a critically wounded soldier from being hit with a bill for items that were most likely blown off his body or ripped off and tossed aside by medics.
I'm sure the Army already has a clear system in place for classifying the severity and combat/non-combat context of injuries. So it would be easy to limit the automatic write-offs to serious combat injuries, and exclude the inventory held by soldiers who were treated for bumps and bruises in a combat theater, or who were critically injured while driving drunk near their U.S base.
That would still require paperwork to document. And who's to say that some future Lt would refuse to sign the paperwork that said he lost his gear because he was critically wounded in combat?