He is a Port Angeles High School graduate and a top pilot in the Air Force who has flown more than 2,000 hours in 31 different aircraft.
But on Thursday, Lt. Col. E. John “Dragon” Teichert will set his pilot helmet to the side to put on a different hat — that of keynote speaker at the annual Mount Olympus Friends of Scouting fundraising breakfast in Port Angeles and dinner in Port Townsend.
The breakfast will be at 7 a.m. in the second-floor meeting of the Port Angeles Red Lion Hotel, 221 N. Lincoln St. Registration is at 6:30 a.m.
The dinner will be at 6:30 p.m. in the Port Townsend Northwest Maritime Center, 431 Water St. Registration is at 6 p.m.
Both events are free, but donations to the Boy Scouts are encouraged.
Teichert said Tuesday that he will talk about how organizations like the Boy Scouts help shape tomorrow’s leaders.
“I appreciate organizations that provide leadership lessons,” said the former Cub Scout.
“Young men and boys in our communities lack role models.”
Howie Ruddell, a high school friend of Teichert and local Boy Scouts representative, said the top pilot’s speech will not be one to miss.
“It’s not every day you get to hear somebody of his caliber,” he said.
Ruddell is the owner of Ruddell’s Auto Mall in Port Angeles and is also the North Olympic Peninsula representative for the Chief Seattle Boy Scouts Council board of directors.
Teichert, who has graduated with degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University, was Port Angeles High School’s top graduate in 1990.
The 37-year-old is also the first pilot ever chosen directly out of the Air Force’s test pilot school.
He has flown combat missions in Operation Northern Watch and Operation Allied Force — becoming his squadron’s “top gun” in the skies of the former Yugoslavia — and flown Operation Noble Eagle missions, protecting the nation’s capital shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Additionally, as part of the pilot’s biography, Teichert was a distinguished graduate from the Air Command and Staff College in Alabama and has been promoted to 411th Flight Test Squadron commander and the director of the F-22 Raptor Combined Test Force.
For more information or to RSVP, phone Derek Ballinger at 360-460-7030.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
