{"id":21517,"date":"2022-04-06T22:22:27","date_gmt":"2022-04-07T02:22:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=21517"},"modified":"2022-04-06T22:22:31","modified_gmt":"2022-04-07T02:22:31","slug":"sun-n-fun-aerospace-expo-honorscity-of-lakeland-police-department-hero-with-u-s-a-f-thunderbird-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2022\/04\/06\/sun-n-fun-aerospace-expo-honorscity-of-lakeland-police-department-hero-with-u-s-a-f-thunderbird-flight\/","title":{"rendered":"SUN \u2018n FUN Aerospace Expo Honors<\/strong>City of Lakeland Police Department Hero with U.S.A.F. Thunderbird Flight<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A tradition as part of the SUN \u2018n FUN Aerospace Expo is the announcement of the Hometown Hero ride with each year\u2019s respective military demonstration team. The U.S. Air Force Flight Demonstration Team, Thunderbirds, will fly Sergeant Chad Mumbauer of the City of Lakeland Police Department. SUN ‘n FUN Aerospace Expo has relied on the participation of both the City of Lakeland Police Department and the Polk County Sheriff\u2019s Office to execute a safe and controlled event for many years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In recognition of\u00a0their dedication to the community, both departments were offered the opportunity to nominate officers that they felt were deserving of special recognition and a ride of their life with our country\u2019s most elite military demonstration team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sergeant Chad Mumbauer<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Thunderbirds selected Sergeant Chad Mumbauer who is the epitome of a 25+ year public servant and Marine Corps veteran who leads by example. With the heart of a warrior, he has overcome brain cancer three times in the past 10 years and returned to full duty as a leader of the department\u2019s Special Operations Unit in the City of Lakeland Police Department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lakeland Police Department\u00a0Chief Ruben Garcia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As City of Lakeland Police Department Chief Ruben Garcia shared, \u201cI cannot think of a person more deserving of this honor than Sergeant Chad Mumbauer. During these twenty-plus years of service, Chad has faced many challenges, including the enormous battle of fighting off brain cancer, not once but three times. Each time in a display of strength and grace that can only be described as superhuman, Chad has faced this awful disease head-on with the highest of faith and motivation to return to his normal life. Chad has become an icon in the tactical community as a true survivor, a warrior, and a role model of hope to hundreds of SWAT officers who serve communities throughout our state. I am humbled to have had the privilege of working alongside him these many years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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John \u201cLites\u201d Leenhouts, President and CEO of SUN \u2018n FUN Flyin and the Aerospace Center for Excellence.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is opportunities such as the Hometown Hero ride that Sergeant Mumbauer will enjoy with the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds that reminds us that our event has a heart and soul and we are honored to have enabled this experience for him.\u201d said John \u201cLites\u201d Leenhouts, President and CEO of SUN \u2018n FUN Flyin and the Aerospace Center for Excellence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Maj. Ryan Yingling, Operations Officer, Thunderbird #7 <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Sergeant Mumbauer will be flying with Maj. Ryan Yingling, Operations Officer, Thunderbird #7 in the Air Force\u2019s premier multi-role fighter jet, the F-16 Fighting Falcon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A tradition as part of the SUN \u2018n FUN Aerospace Expo is the announcement of the Hometown Hero ride with each year\u2019s respective military demonstration team. The U.S. Air Force… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21518,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[2669],"class_list":["post-21517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-lakeland-police-department-hero-with-u-s-a-f-thunderbird-flight"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}