“Did Gowdy ever figure out who gave the stand down order?”
Even if he had, would he even tell us?
If Gowdy discovered whose order directly resulted in the death of the two Marines, no, I don’t believe he would tell us. The Uniparty’s goal is to toss the peasants enough scraps, from time to time, to make them believe DC is working for them. But the Uniparty cannot afford to give the peasants enough info to cause genuine unrest. The Uniparty will issue a report from time to time. They just need to make sure there is no widespread call for action in the aftermath.
With Obama missing for 8 hours they were probably not sure what to do.