Captain Derek Chapman has always been a soldier, a lover of flying in a fighter jet and good Cuban cigars. Originally from Los Angeles, he enlisted in the Air Force when he was only eighteen years old. After being one of the first in his class at the Academy he was assigned to the VFA-32 ‘Swordsmen’ squadron, where he met who would become his best friend and flight comrade, Jack Preston.

His career was meteoric through his participation in different combat operations in the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan, where he survived after being shot down alongside Preston during the Battle of Tora Bora. Those who know him well know that this mission changed him forever. He had always had a very outgoing and comical character, but after what happened, the details of which have only been heard in rumors, he became a much more serious and temperate pilot. He is said to have single-handedly wiped out an entire Taliban position to rescue his partner Jack Preston.

Despite the scars of war, the two became the best flying couple in the United States Air Force. Whether flying together on the same plane or separately.

He and Jack Preston have been inseparable since they met. That is why when Jack was offered to take be in charge of the Phoenix Project tests, Derek did not hesitate for a moment to follow him, even if it meant temporarily separating himself from his family. And although Derek madly loves his wife Estella and his children Eddie and Jack, he feels that his sense of loyalty to Jack is stronger. He would go to the end of the world if he asked him to.