Lt. Col. Thomas E. (Ted) Drake

Lt. Col. Thomas E. (Ted) Drake

Ted Drake received his commission from Officer Training School in 1971 and graduated from Pilot Training at Moody AFB, Valdosta, GA in 1972.

After F-4 training at George AFB, he was assigned as an F-4 Pilot and later Instructor Pilot with the 91 TFS at RAF Bentwaters, England, from 1972-1976. He was then assigned to F-4s with the 90TFS at Clark AB, Philippines, from 1976-1977 before being selected to attend the USAF Fighter Weapons Instructor Course at Nellis AFB. Captain Drake was then assigned as an F-4 Instructor Pilot and Weapons Officer to the 306TFTS, Homestead AFB, FL, from 1978-1981. In 1981, Captain Drake was assigned to the first F-16 Operational Wing (474TFW), 429 TFS, Nellis AFB, NV, as an Instructor Pilot and served as the Wing's Weapons Officer.

In 1984 Major Drake was selected for assignment to the 4477th Test & Evaluation Squadron, 57th Fighter Weapons Wing, Nellis AFB, NV, as a "Project Constant Peg" pilot. "Project Constant Peg" was highly classified at the time with the official mission statement being to "fly highly modified, classified, unspecified test aircraft in support of Tactical Air Command". In reality, it was "American Secret MiG Squadron". The 4477 TES was a tri-service squadron made up of Weapons Officers, Aggressors, and Top-Gun Instructor Pilots from the USAF, Navy and Marine Corp. The squadron was typically made up of 14 Air Force, 3 Navy and 1 Marine pilot permanently assigned. Its primary mission was to train Tactical Fighter Pilots from all 3 services to fly, fight and win against Russian Fighters. From 1984 until 1987, Major Drake flew a total of 441 MiG sorties; 147 missions in the MiG-21 and 294 missions in the MiG-23, the most MiG-23 sorties of any of the Constant Peg pilots.

In 1987, Major Drake was assigned back into the F-16 at Luke AFB as an F-16 Instructor Pilot and retired from the Air Force in 1991 as a Lt. Col.

Following his Air Force career, Ted continued flying as a pilot for American Airlines where he primarily flew the Boeing 757 and 767 aircraft and retired as a DC-9-82/83 Captain in November 2013. His flying career spanned over 42 years of jet aircraft aviation.