we Navy guys are pretty decent people. just ask my friends and i.

you mean he can just put one of those gizmos on his issue weapon without going through command?

From my time in the army in the 80's, we could put add-on's on your issue as long as they were removable upon turn in to the arms room. You could not change the configuration in a major way.

I knew a guy that would put his own upper on and take it to the field so he could clean it at his own pace and turn in the clean, issue A1 upper with his issue lower. It was a good idea. He shot blanks with his own upper that got dirty as hell.

I used to put a 4x scope on my M16 in 1982 and a suppressor 'can that was passed around the squad as people left. I don't remember what make or how it got there. It was pretty cool for recon work. Not as effective as today's units. But cool anyway. I think it was a Vietnam bring back.

BTW, cool that you'd give him a great optic that will make him safer and better to place shots with.

Tell him you want a beer as repayment. It's not about repayment or getting your scope back. Give him a desire to bring himself back, minus new holes.

Is he likely to see ground action as a member of the Navy?

Was he at the Calverton shoot?  What's his name?

As a corpman he would be right alongsides the Marines I would think.  Most Navy folks don't get that close to combat other than corpman(medical), Seabees(engineer) or SEALs.  You could include the brownwater Navy but I'm not sure if there an PBR's left in the fleet.