Hometown Hero

Photo Caption: (three men on the football field) U.S. Air Force Gen. Robin Rand (right), commander of Air Force Global Strike Command, receives a “hero’s welcome” from the fans of Texas A&M at Kyle Field in College Station, Texas, Nov. 19, 2016. The general was joined by U.S. Air Force Captains Jeffrey Antal (class of 2006) and Eric Bruton (class of 2008), both are Dyess B-1B Lancer aircrew members and Texas A&M alumni. Rand was invited by the university to serve as the reviewing official for the A&M Corps of Cadets Pass and Review prior to the Texas A&M versus University of Texas San Antonio football game. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Austin Mayfield)

For Maj. Jeff Antal, It’s All About Family and Flying

By Ron Aaron Eisenberg

When it absolutely positively has to be there overnight, chances are 78209 resident Major Jeff Antal will fly it there.

Antal, 37, was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. He has two older brothers, both of whom served in the military – one in the Army and the other in the Air Force. His dad was an engineer with Boeing.

From high school, Antal attended Texas A&M University, where he was a member of the Corps. Following graduation in 2009, he was commissioned a Lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force. He went to pilot training at Laughlin Air Force Base in Del Rio, Texas, the largest pilot training facility in the United States Air Force.

Antal’s brother flew C-17s, transport planes. But he wasn’t sure what he wanted to fly. He just knew he wanted to be a pilot. And he did just that, flying B-1 bombers all over the world, including missions in S. Korea, the S. China Sea, Australia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere. He also was deployed to Guam and the Middle East. But before the B-1, he was a pilot instructor on the T-6 from 2012 to 2015. In 2015, he transitioned to the B-1 bomber, the supersonic variable-sweep wing, heavy bomber.

Along the way, “I met my wife-to-be, Pamela, during pilot training. We were at Cowboy’s Dance Hall. We got engaged right before my graduation from pilot training.” They married in 2012. They have three children – two boys and a girl.

The family moved to San Antonio in 2019 when Antal was assigned to Randolph Air Force Base as a T-38 instructor. The T-38 is a two-seat, twinjet supersonic jet trainer.

He recently transitioned into the Air Force Reserves. He currently flies T-38s out of heavy maintenance to test their airworthiness. He is half-time with the Air Force and also flies the Airbus A300 for Federal Express out of Memphis, Tennessee, the FedEx headquarter city.