{"id":63679,"date":"2026-03-13T15:32:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T19:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=63679"},"modified":"2026-03-13T15:32:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T19:32:22","slug":"colonel-ret-mark-tillman-the-12th-presidential-pilot-who-famously-commanded-air-force-one-during-the-september-11-attacks-served-as-the-keynote-speaker-for-a-major-fundraising-event-in-lakeland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/03\/13\/colonel-ret-mark-tillman-the-12th-presidential-pilot-who-famously-commanded-air-force-one-during-the-september-11-attacks-served-as-the-keynote-speaker-for-a-major-fundraising-event-in-lakeland\/","title":{"rendered":"Colonel (Ret.) Mark Tillman, the 12th presidential pilot who famously commanded Air Force One during the September 11 attacks, served as the keynote speaker for a major fundraising event in Lakeland"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Colonel (Ret.) Mark Tillman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

On Wednesday, March 11, 2026, Colonel (Ret.) Mark Tillman<\/strong>, the 12th presidential pilot who famously commanded Air Force One during the September 11 attacks, served as the keynote speaker for a major fundraising event in Lakeland.<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The benefit luncheon, titled “Moments in History as Viewed from the Cockpit Window of Air Force One,”<\/strong> was held at the First Presbyterian Church of Lakeland.<\/sup> Organized by the Polk Education Foundation<\/strong>, the event was a success, reaching its goal of raising approximately $30,000<\/strong> for Junior ROTC (JROTC) scholarships.<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Highlights<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  • The Mission:<\/strong> The funds will benefit over 3,000 cadets<\/strong> across more than a dozen JROTC programs in Polk County Public Schools, helping them pursue postsecondary education and careers in aviation or the military.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • A Historic Perspective:<\/strong> Col. Tillman shared firsthand accounts of protecting President George W. Bush on 9\/11 and the high-stakes logistics of flying the Commander-in-Chief into a combat zone for a surprise Thanksgiving visit to troops in Iraq in 2003.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Community Impact:<\/strong> The Polk Education Foundation continues to support local students year-round, having raised nearly $2 million<\/strong> through various initiatives, including these scholarships and mentoring programs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    The event not only provided financial support for local students but also offered them a rare opportunity to hear from a figure who navigated some of the most critical moments in modern American history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    On Wednesday, March 11, 2026, Colonel (Ret.) Mark Tillman, the 12th presidential pilot who famously commanded Air Force One during the September 11 attacks, served as the keynote speaker for… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63680,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"7254","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"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.jyVQ9fqSSB0jxXxQsZxmFGgVkLgfg-9rv1cjONm9oEcMQ"},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[7254],"tags":[14047,14048],"class_list":["post-63679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sun-n-fun","tag-colonel-ret-mark-tillman","tag-the-12th-presidential-pilot-who-famously-commanded-air-force-one-during-the-september-11-attacks"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63679","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63679"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63681,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63679\/revisions\/63681"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}