{"id":176909,"date":"2026-03-03T22:16:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T22:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/176909\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T22:16:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T22:16:11","slug":"florida-commissioners-son-ordered-to-deploy-overseas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/176909\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida commissioner&#8217;s son ordered to deploy overseas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8216;Concerned, proud&#8217;: Florida commissioner&#8217;s son ordered to deploy overseas<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTHE U.S. IS SENDING MORE TROOPS, CARRIER STRIKE GROUPS, AND     REFUELING TANKERS TO THE MIDDLE EAST TO SUPPORT OPERATIONS AGAINST IRAN. ONE SEMINOLE COUNTY COMMISSIONER SAYS HIS SON GOT A NOTICE. WESH 2 NEWS CHRISTINA WATKINS TELLS US HOW THEY FEEL ABOUT HIS FIRST EVER DEPLOYMENT. I CAN TELL YOU THAT I RAISED MY FAMILY. YOU\u2019VE SEEN COMMISSIONER JAY ZEMBOWER AT SEMINOLE COUNTY MEETINGS, BUT BEFORE HE STEPS INTO THE HAT OF AN ELECTED LEADER, HE\u2019S A HUSBAND, A FATHER, AND A GRANDFATHER. RIGHT NOW, HE AND HIS WIFE SAY THEY\u2019RE GETTING READY FOR THEIR SON, LUKE, TO POSSIBLY DEPLOY TO THE MIDDLE EAST TO SUPPORT OPERATIONS AGAINST IRAN. WE\u2019RE VERY CONCERNED, BUT I\u2019M ALSO PROUD THAT, YOU KNOW, HE\u2019S GOING TO HE\u2019S GOING TO REPRESENT OUR COUNTRY, AND I\u2019M SURE HE WILL REPRESENT IT WELL. U.S. LEADERS SAY THIS DEPLOYMENT IS PART OF THE LARGEST AMERICAN MILITARY BUILDUP IN THE REGION. SINCE THE 2003 WAR IN IRAQ. ZEMBOWER SAYS IT\u2019S UNCLEAR WHEN THEIR SON COULD LEAVE AND EXACTLY WHERE HE WOULD GO. ALL WE KNOW IS HE WILL BE DEPARTING AND WE\u2019RE SUPPOSED TO GET A CALL WITHIN A REASONABLE AMOUNT OF TIME TO GET THERE FOR A SEND OFF AT A FORT STEWART, GEORGIA. AND IT SOUNDS LIKE IT\u2019S GOING TO BE RELATIVELY SOON. LUKE IS IN THE ARMY. THIS IS VIDEO FROM HIS GRADUATION. ZEMBOWER SAYS WITH THIS BEING HIS FIRST DEPLOYMENT NOTICE, THEY ARE ANXIOUSLY WATCHING AND WAITING TO SEE WHAT HAPPENS. AS PARENTS, YOU KNOW, WE\u2019RE WE\u2019RE EXTREMELY CONCERNED. AND, YOU KNOW, WE WANT HIM TO BE SAFE, BUT ALSO DO THE DUTY ON BEHALF OF THIS COUNTRY. ALL WE CAN DO IS HOPE THAT, YOU KNOW, GOD LOOKS OVER HIM AND LOOKS OVER ALL OF OUR MEN AND WOMEN IN MILITARY. COVERING SEMINOLE COUNTY COMMISSIONER ZEMBOWER SAYS ONCE THEY GOT THE CALL, H\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Concerned, proud&#8217;: Florida commissioner&#8217;s son ordered to deploy overseas<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768911270_880_wesh.png\" class=\"lazyload lazyload-in-view branding\" alt=\"WESH logo\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tUpdated: 4:52 PM EST Mar 3, 2026\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wesh.com\/article\/hearst-television-news-policy-statements\/14471973\" class=\"editorial-standards border-left\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Editorial Standards \u24d8<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#8216;Concerned, proud&#8217;: Florida commissioner&#8217;s son ordered to deploy overseas THE U.S. IS SENDING MORE TROOPS, CARRIER STRIKE GROUPS,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2389,9227,83598,83601,28,83600,30,29,83599,18302,21539,45138,8314,17345,83597,1960,4494,83596],"class_list":["post-176909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-call","tag-country","tag-deployment","tag-elected-leader","tag-florida","tag-florida-commissioner","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-he","tag-im","tag-iran","tag-luke","tag-middle-east","tag-operation","tag-seminole-county-commissioner","tag-son","tag-u-s","tag-zembower"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}