View from a Helicopter

As usual, we went from the Kandahar airfield to KPRT via helicopter.  (I've only known one person who went via ground, and it took over two hours to go less than 10 kilometers.)  We flew into Kandahar a different way. Normally we fly over the rocky barren moonscape desert.  But this time we veered far to the south, and I saw for the first time sandy desert, a weird dark orange color.  You see the muddy river, and the narrow bands of wet clay on either side of it, and then dramatically abruptly, it stops and becomes sand dunes, and there is nothing, no buildings, no roads, no tracks through the sand.
Anyway, back to the helicopter.  We're doing the usual flight, though this time without another helo flying escort, when suddenly the gunner opens fire for about twenty rounds at an empty hill.  Nothing was shot at us - or if it was, nothing close - and none of the rest of the crew made any movement, so for all I know he was just test firing or bored or something.