By all appearances, it was an unfortunate stunt. On Saturday an entertainer named Kid Rock, who had a few hit songs many years ago, shared videos via social media of Apache helicopters doing a flyby at his home in Nashville, Tennessee. The clips showed the entertainer, whose real name is Robert Ritchie, saluting and applauding the troops.
It obviously wasn’t an appropriate use of military resources, and the Army quickly did what everyone expected it to do: It suspended the crew members and temporarily barred them from flight duties pending a review of the incident.
Even Donald Trump conceded on Monday that the helicopter pilots “probably shouldn’t have been doing it” since “you’re not supposed to be playing games, right?”
The president’s defense secretary, however, came to a very different conclusion soon after. The New York Times reported:
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday abruptly reversed the suspension of Army crews that piloted two Apache helicopters close to the musician Kid Rock’s residence in Nashville over the weekend. […]
Mr. Hegseth appeared to end both the suspensions and the investigation, with a social media post on Tuesday night declaring: ‘No punishment. No investigation. Carry on, patriots.’
The Times added that the moves represented “a remarkable intervention from the highest level of the Pentagon,” adding that the decree “was another indication of his contempt for legal guardrails in the military.”
As far as the Army was concerned, the crews ignored the military’s strict standards for aviation safety, professionalism and adherence to established flight regulations. As far as the former Fox News host was concerned, aviation safety, professionalism and adherence to established flight regulations just weren’t all that important.
Kid Rock is aligned with Trump and MAGA, the helicopter crews used military assets to favor Kid Rock, and for Hegseth, apparently little else matters.
Complicating matters, however, is the larger context, which includes the president repeatedly taking steps to overtly politicize U.S. troops, while the Pentagon chief targets military leaders he deems “woke.”








