{"id":186038,"date":"2026-03-10T18:49:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T18:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/186038\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T18:49:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T18:49:07","slug":"tampa-bay-chamber-brings-home-national-abilene-award-for-military-support-during-hurricane-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/186038\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay Chamber Brings Home National Abilene Award For Military Support During Hurricane Response"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>            <a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ospreyobserver.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Abilene-STCOC.jpg?fit=1800%2C1200&amp;ssl=1\" data-caption=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"696\" height=\"464\" class=\"entry-thumb td-modal-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Abilene-STCOC.jpg\"   alt=\"\" title=\"Abilene---STCOC\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Tampa Bay Chamber, South Tampa Chamber, Tampa Bay Defense Alliance (TBDA) and MacDill Support Group are proud to announce that the Tampa Bay region has been awarded the 2024 Abilene Trophy, recognizing the nation\u2019s most outstanding community support to an Air Mobility Command (AMC) base. The award was officially announced by the Abilene Military Affairs Committee in partnership with AMC and Air Force Reserve Command Public Affairs offices.<\/p>\n<p>In the announcement, Abilene AMC Civic Leader Sam Nichols said, \u201cFor over 85 years, the broad-based communities in the Greater Tampa area have delivered continuous support to meet the needs of Wing and Area Military families. Following Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton, their incredible collaboration demonstrated their outstanding commitment to MacDill Air Force Base, its mission, their airmen and families.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>This prestigious award honors Tampa Bay\u2019s decades-long commitment to the airmen and their families at MacDill Air Force Base, including extraordinary collaboration in 2024 through AirFest, education initiatives, workforce programs and an unprecedented community response following Hurricanes Helene and Milton.<\/p>\n<p>The partnering organizations expressed collective pride in the recognition.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are honored to receive the Abilene Trophy, a testament to our community\u2019s longstanding commitment to MacDill Air Force Base and the families who call Military Bay, USA home,\u201d said Dr. Bob Rohrlack, president and CEO of the Tampa Bay Chamber. \u201cThis award celebrates the strength of our partnerships throughout Tampa Bay and the dedication of our business and civic leaders who consistently step forward in support of our military.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Abilene Trophy honors communities that demonstrate exceptional, sustained support for their Air Mobility Command base. Tampa Bay\u2019s partnership with MacDill Air Force Base is part of who we are, and we are proud to see that commitment recognized. For more than eight decades, our community has stood beside the men and women of MacDill, supporting their mission, their families and their vital role in our nation\u2019s defense,\u201d said Kelly Flannery, president and CEO of the South Tampa Chamber.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTBDA expresses our sincere appreciation to the Abilene Military Affairs Committee for their selection of Tampa Bay as the recipient of the 2024 Abilene Trophy,\u201d retired Maj. Gen. Larry Martin, president of TBDA, said. \u201cFor decades, the Tampa Bay Region has demonstrated its enduring commitment to our military members, their families and the air mobility mission, but never so much as before and after the devastation of 2024\u2019s Hurricanes Helene and Milton.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For more information, visit <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tampabaychamber.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">www.tampabaychamber.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tampa Bay Chamber, South Tampa Chamber, Tampa Bay Defense Alliance (TBDA) and MacDill Support Group are proud&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186039,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-186038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186038","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=186038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}