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I'm with you here. I'm a former infantry officer and I've done dozens of reports of survey, and had God-only-knows how many done on soldiers under my command. Generally speaking, the soldier is given the option of Report of Survey or signing a Statement of Charges. Assuming the soldier is telling the complete truth, he should have demanded a report of survey. A survey officer (usually a platoon leader, but not HIS platoon leader) from his battalion would be appointed to do a quick investigation as to the cause of the loss. Surveys have a 30 day limit, if I recall correctly, so at most, the soldier would only be in the Army for another thirty days. Combat loss surveys are usually pretty simple, so I can't imagine why this soldier didn't refuse the statement of charges. Generally speaking, signing a statement of charges is considered an admission that yeah, you lost it, and you don't have a good reason.

Is this procedure common knowledge or would he have to be lucky enough to come across someone who would actually have the intelligence and caring to help get him squared away? My own experience with supply/disbursing/personnel pukes leads me to believe that nobody lifted a finger to help him.

It would have been common knowledge for an officer. I can't believe that he *never* did a report of survey while he was in the Army.