Most well known as a National Security Agency whistleblower, he was awarded both a Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence Award and a Ridenhour Prize for Truth-Telling. Also a decorated serviceman, he worked as a voice and intelligence analyst for the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Navy.
He was educated at the University of Maryland and the University of Arizona.
He was featured in a 2014 documentary film titled Silenced.
The son of a Second World War veteran and a personal secretary to Pulitzer and Nobel Prize-winning author Pearl S. Buck, Drake was born in Louisiana.
He and Edward Snowden are both famous for speaking out about what they believed to be questionable NSA practices.