Pete Hegseth Confirms Helicopter Pilots Who Flew Over Kid Rock's 'Southern White House' Will Face 'No Punishment':

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Carry On, Patriots’


War Secretary Pete Hegseth has lifted a suspension that was handed down to several U.S. Army flight crew members who flew an Apache helicopter down low over musician Kid Rock's "Southern White House," while confirming that they will face "no punishment" for their actions.

The suspension had been issued soon after Kid Rock, 55, whose real name is Robert James Ritchie, shared video footage on March 28 of one of the aircraft hovering over his swimming pool at his Tennessee home, while he waved, fist pumped, and saluted.

Speaking to Politico, Army spokesperson Major Montrell Russell, said in a statement that an administrative review had been launched to "assess the mission and verify compliance with regulations and airspace requirements," noting that "appropriate action" will be taken if any violations are found to have taken place.

However, in a post shared to his X account on March 31, Hegseth, 45, praised the crew members as "patriots," while thanking Kid Rock for posting the footage. He then confirmed that he had lifted the suspension against those involved.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/pete-hegseth-confirms-helicopter-pilots-130353671.html

I'm sure that's going to do wonders for military discipline.

[orleans]

1. what a bunch of shit for brains assholes! all of them! nt

[pwb]

2. Now, as long as they can get away with shit

they might as well fly home for lunch or stop at kid rocks for a drink? Look out for a chopper landing in your neighborhood for a coffee break.

Way to set the example Pete.

Get that flag desecration out of your pocket asshole?

[Lovie777]

3. Not under him................

[Sneederbunk]

4. Kid Rock is a god and it's about time we all realized this.

He has achieved Ted Nugent stratosphere status

[LetMyPeopleVote]

5. MaddowBlog-Hegseth's intervention in Kid Rock flyby fiasco is part of a more serious problem

Even Donald Trump conceded that the helicopter pilots “probably shouldn’t” have done what they did. His defense secretary came to a different conclusion.

Hegseth’s intervention in Kid Rock flyby fiasco was ridiculous, but it’s the larger context that matters:

An apolitical military is a foundational, bedrock principle of the United States. It is a principle for which Team Trump has no use, creating an untenable dynamic.
www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-04-01T14:50:01.253Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/kid-rock-helicopter-hegseth-trump

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.”......

An apolitical military is a foundational, bedrock principle of the United States. Partisan, ideological and electoral considerations must be utterly irrelevant to what the military is and how it functions.

It is nevertheless a principle for which Trump and his team appear to have no use, creating an untenable dynamic: In a healthy democracy, the politicization of the military isn’t just misguided, it’s also genuinely dangerous.

In October, The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols highlighted what he described as an ongoing “civil-military crisis,” arguing that “Trump and his valet at the Defense Department, Secretary of Physical Training Pete Hegseth, are now making a dedicated run at turning the men and women of the armed forces into Trump’s personal and partisan army.”

Hegseth’s intervention in the Kid Rock flyby fiasco offered timely evidence that bolstered the underlying fears.