It’s not every day a tank is named for a particular person, but when that individual is actually built like one, it just works.
This was the case for Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, whose name graced one of the hulking tracks of the Army’s 1st Armored Division, which tweeted a photo of the beast from its official account that was subsequently praised by the WWE star-turned-actor.
“'If you smell what America’s Tank Division is cooking!'” the 1st Armored Division Twitter posted last week. “Shoutout to the #IronSoldiers assigned to the @Blackhawk_SQDN for naming one of their tanks in homage to the @TheRock. Hopefully the ‘People’s Champ’ will see it and give you guys a shoutout and a retweet!”
Johnson responded to the shout out in turn, posting a nod to the armed services, along with some admiration of the American muscle on display at Fort Bliss, to his Instagram account.
“I’m sending a salute of respect & gratitude to the Blackhawk Squadron 🇺🇸 [sic] 1st Armored Division for the honor of naming their tank (the most advanced in the world) Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson,” the post read. “Heavy duty, bad ass, sexy AF and built to take care of business 😉 — but most importantly, thank you all for your service. Grateful to the bone.”
Unfortunately, the Army missed a golden opportunity to reply with some favorite lyrics of The Rock’s “Moana” character, Maui — “What can I say except, ‘You’re welcome!'”
Despite the playful mutual admiration between machine and human tanks, some Instagram users were less than pleased with Johnson’s post, unfollowing the superstar and decrying The Rock for warmongering.
An overwhelming number of users quickly rushed to counter those protesting, however, and in a matter of minutes, what started as a seemingly innocuous social media post derailed into a royal rumble of what only The Rock could call a roody-poo candy-ass comment thread.
Johnson hasn’t commented, because:
Jon Simkins is the executive editor for Military Times and Defense News, and a Marine Corps veteran of the Iraq War.
