Quote Originally Posted by CitizenCain View Post
If you read between the lines, he was attached to the special ops teams.

So, even at a "normal" base, he's not going to get much resistance to the idea of leaving base, loaded for bear at unusual hours. That comes with being attached to a special ops team; that's the job. And of course, even in the general case, the gate guards allow personal to leave the base freely - their job is keeping unauthorized folks out, not keeping military personnel in. This is especially true on a FOB, where the base's whole raison d'etre is to provide a base from which you launch operations. And when it involves special ops, they particularly don't ask questions, because that's just a stupid thing to do on some many levels. The gate guard probably won't have clearance to hear the real answer, is probably specifically instructed NOT to log the comings and goings of special ops teams, doesn't want to piss off the operators, will look up to the operators, etc.
I get what you're saying and it makes total sense; the only thing that still seems off is he was alone. This wasn't a team going out to do something nobody should ask about, it was one guy. How often does that happen? Of course even if it never did before, who would challenge him this first time? Nobody, probably, for the reasons you said above.