(STILLWATER, Oklahoma, Dec. 11, 2020)— When Thomas Drakeley boarded the Airbus 777 on Jan. 1, 2020, to fulfill a dream of serving his country, he had visions of what to expect. The 22-year-old planned to take a semester off from classes at Oklahoma State University’s Spears School of Business, delay graduation, serve six months in Qatar with the Air National Guard and return to a campus similar to the one he left.
When he left for the Middle East, OSU’s Stillwater campus was bustling with more than 20,000 students, and almost no one had heard of COVID-19. But the coronavirus pandemic delayed his return to the United States; when he arrived back in Oklahoma in August, he found a campus transformed to combat COVID-19.
Despite the changes, including socially distanced classrooms and group projects conducted by video chat, Drakeley and his classmates made the best of the situation. He will be one of more than 6,000 graduates from 2020 recognized during this weekend’s virtual commencement ceremonies.
“I just really appreciate the opportunity that Oklahoma State gave me,” Drakeley said. “I’ve gained a lot of insight and I’ve gained a lot of knowledge from the school. It’s definitely prepared me to become a leader.”
Born and raised in Hartford, Connecticut, Drakeley followed his sister, Molly, to OSU. She graduated in 2018 with a bachelor’s degree in animal sciences and is a third-year student in OSU’s College of Veterinary Medicine. He pursued a management degreeand decided to join an Air National Guard unit based in Tulsa.
In October 2019, he volunteered for a six-month deployment to Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.
“I asked them if there’s ever an opportunity (for deployment) in January or closer to May where I’d just miss a semester,” Drakeley said. “I never really had the opportunity to fully engage in the military environment, so I really wanted to deploy, and I really wanted to make sure it only took up one semester. So, when that January opportunity arose, I decided it was too good to pass up.”
Drakeley served with an aircraft refueling team at the air base, a hub for all U.S. aircraft in the Middle East.
“It’s the largest operating base for the Air Force in the Central Command, and I really enjoyed my job,” said Drakeley, whose 180-day stay was eventually extended to around 220 due to the pandemic. “I’ve had the opportunity the past four years to work in the career field of fuel distribution. But I got to do that overseas, and I got to fuel more planes in my six or seven months over there than my entire time in Tulsa. They had so much more equipment, and there were so many more different planes from different countries.”
It’s also where he met his fiancée, Destiny Dailey. They met in a Student Flight program for new members in 2016 and quickly became friends. The pair kept in touch as they completed basic training and throughout tech school, and the friendship turned into something more.
Drakeley plans to pursue a master’s degree in business administration (MBA), while Dailey is studying to become a registered nurse at Rogers State University in Claremore, Oklahoma. The pair plan to marry in January 2022, and both hope to graduate in May of that year.
He says none of this would be possible — meeting his fiancée, joining the Air National Guard, traveling to the Middle East and earning his bachelor’s degree — without following his sister to OSU.
“The business school has done a great job of finding professors who care about what they teach, and they have made the learning experience something I’ve enjoyed,” he said. “I’m so very glad that I took the opportunity to come to Oklahoma State, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”
Oklahoma State University is a modern land-grant university that prepares students for success. OSU has more than 34,000 students across its five-campus system and more than 24,000 on its combined Stillwater and Tulsa campuses, with students from all 50 states and around 100 nations. Established in 1890, OSU has graduated more than 275,000 students to serve the state of Oklahoma, the nation and the world.
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