Aha, so that's it, the officer in charge of the missile battery was looking for something to occupy his troops with, and in exasperation at not finding anything, probably said something off the cuff, such as 'Look, if you've got nothing better to do, why not go over there, take a break and smoke a few Camels?'
If only he'd have smoked Winston, things would have been fine, unless he was serving in WW2, in which case there could have been real trouble.
Chock