Lieutenant Colonel (LtCol) Drake is the Marine Corps’ 2022-2023 Fellow at the MIT Security Studies Program. An infantry and reconnaissance officer as well as an operational planner, he has served in numerous command and staff assignments, including three combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan and multiple other overseas tours. 

Lieutenant Colonel Drake has served as an instructor for the Marine Corps’ Basic School and Infantry Officer Courses, as an operational planner focused on contingency and crisis response operations throughout the Middle East, and as a staff officer for multiple units in the Continental United States as well as overseas. Most recently, he served as the Inspector-Instructor, 1st Battalion 24th Marines.

He holds a Bachelor of Science in History from the United States Naval Academy and a Masters of Operational Studies from the Marine Corps School of Advanced Warfighting.