Had something similar happen one April, when we went to Grayling for some early artillery work. We were almost ready to fire when a radio call came in telling us to stand down, and get ready for fire fighting duty.
We pulled all our guns and other vehicles into a line alongside the road, so we could have a cleared area in the field for the dozen Hueys that showed up to take everybody away. Everbody except me and two other guys, who were left behind to guard the equipment, and monitor the radio. They just never told us what frequency to monitor.
So we spent two days with a case of Cs, a water buffalo, no sleeping gear, and no cold weather gear. We were supposed to fire only until dark, head back to camp, sleep in the barracks, and clean the guns the next day. Fortunately, the captain left his field jacket in his jeep when he left, so I gave myself a quickie promotion rather than freeze.
We had no idea what was going on until late Sunday, when some helos brought back enough guys to drive the vehicles back. It turns out our FDC guys were on one Huey being flown to a hotspot when they spotted a guy on a dirtbike lighting fires. The firebug tried to escape, but a helicopter is faster than a dirtbike, especially when flown by a crazy (I hated my flights with those guys) ex-Vietnam pilot. He knocked the guy off the bike with his rotorwash, then landed next to him. Everybody jumped out, and spent ten minutes convincing the guy to turn himself in. After seeing the error of his ways, they tossed ("helped") him and his bike into the helicopter, and flew to the nearest state police post. They dropped off his bike in the parking lot from about 50 feet, but landed briefly to "help him off", and make sure the cops knew that he was there to turn himself in for arson. Then my guys were off again for more chopping down trees, and burying burning stuff.
And I missed all the fun while listening for a radio call that would never come, and freezing my ass off after dark.
heh heh... yer in the army now... great story...
when I was with 2d Marines as the Regimental S-6, we were at 29 Palms fer a Combined Arms Exercise... lotsuh carnage... anyway, the Arty was ready fer a TOT fer a battalion-6 (155s) when a spotter round from the 81s that were shootin' a prep flushed a couple of scrappers in their sandrails outta the target area... the 3 and the FSC looked at the Old Man and asked if they should check fire... after a long pause the Col said "Give 'em a thirty second head start..." I'd take a bullet fer that man...
the range safety guys were losin' their minds...