So Wait, Our Army Helicopter Pilots Are Doing Unauthorized Missions for the Sake of Kid Rock Photo Ops?
If you’re anything like us, then many times a day you see something online, recognize it as a simple, dumb publicity stunt, and immediately relegate it to your brain’s outgoing trash heap for disposal. So it was this weekend if you happened to be browsing social media and may have come across the goofy, jingoistic image of a pair of AH-64 Apache attack helicopters hovering immediately outside of the Nashville-area, tacky-beyond-belief hilltop estate of musician and MAGA stooge Kid Rock, who stood there saluting in what certainly looked like a bit of simple propaganda amid the deeply unpopular Iran War. Today’s news, however, turns what looked like a non-story on its head and makes it far weirder: The Army has reportedly suspended the two helicopter crews involved, which means we can only logically conclude that this wasn’t actually a planned or authorized publicity stunt at all. So if that is the case, then just how often are our military helicopter pilots going rogue to perform photo ops with celebrities? Is this a regular occurrence? Do they sometimes swipe the helicopters to pick up their dry cleaning as well?
This is one of those times when someone of authority effectively admitting that the military members involved were going rogue is far weirder outcome than simply embracing “yes, we were just doing some cheap propaganda with military hardware.” According to the Army’s military spokesman, the choppers were based at Kentucky’s Fort Campbell and were supposed to be flying a training route near the Nashville area that day. When questioned about the stunt by the media, said unnamed spokesman said that “appropriate action will be taken if any violations are found.” Given that the crew has now been suspended, we can only conclude that the decision to detour and visit Kid Rock was indeed a “violation.” You don’t punish your soldiers for no reason, right?
“Army aviators must adhere to strict safety standards, professionalism, and established flight regulations,” said the Army’s Monday statement. “An administrative review is underway to assess the mission and verify compliance with regulations and airspace requirements.”
BREAKING: Kid Rock helicopter party – featuring 2 AH-64 Apache attack helicopters which also flew over the nearby No Kings rallies in Nashville, Tennessee – is currently being investigated by the US Army.
— Craig R. Brittain (@craigbrittain.com) Mar 30, 2026 at 12:17 PM
What are we meant to conclude, here? That MAGA darling and famed hypocrite Kid Rock, the man most recently seen drinking milk in a hot tub with a denim-clad RFK Jr., set up the stunt himself, coordinating with military Apache pilots behind the backs of their superiors and the U.S. government? That the helicopter pilots somehow reached out to him and arranged the weird flyby to pay tribute, so he’d be ready to create a propaganda-style Twitter post, which he used to attack California governor Gavin Newsom of all people? Or that this was all set up by the Army, but that they then thought better of it after negative publicity and decided to throw their own helicopter crews under the bus by implying that they’d gone rogue? Frankly, it’s strange to see the suspensions for the helicopter crews at all, given that it implies some degree of shame from an administration that is typically all but immune to it.
In the immediate wake of the publicity stunt, it wasn’t even whether the helicopter pilots were meant to be there outside of Kid Rock’s palatial estate that the Army seemed to be concerned by–it was that the Apache flights would be interpreted as an aggressive action against the Nashville area’s large No Kings protests that were attracting national attention throughout the weekend. A spokesman for the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell went out of his way to stress that their presence in the area was “entirely coincidental” to the fact that No Kings protests were also happening in Nashville over the weekend.
Frankly, the Army would have been better off simply saying that they were complicit in doing a little bit of bog standard armed forces propaganda–it’s not like we don’t get enough of that rah-rah stuff on a daily basis already. The idea of multiple rogue attack helicopter crews, setting up publicity stunts on the side with C-tier celebrities? That’s a bit more alarming, implying the type of recklessness and lack of oversight I would have assumed would never be present in an American soldier wielding an incredibly deadly and valuable piece of machinery. Leave it to our military to not be able to discern that this is a bigger potential issue than any inanity involving Kid Rock.