Army Pilot Worked at Chase

Chief Warrant Officer Ian Manuel, 23, of Florida, told his family he and his fiancee would get married the weekend after coming home from Iraq. He had already reserved a house and even started investment funds for the children he would have one day. But, plans were stopped short. He died Jan. 8, just two months shy of completing his one-year tour of duty.

The helicopter Manuel was copiloting was shot in a routine mission near Fallujah, Iraq, when he and three other crew members were transferring five wounded soldiers to another medical facility.

“He was solid, someone you could depend on, he was a good kid,” said his father Brice Manuel, a Navy veteran.Manuel was born in Hawaii and grew up mostly in Florida where he graduated from a high school near Jacksonville at the age of 17. He earned his piloting wings before he was 21. Manuel could have excelled in electronics if he had decided to use the electronics trade scholarship he received. He could have chosen to climb the corporate ladder; he was already demonstrating leadership at a mortgage bank when he was 19. He could have even gone pro as a golf player, for he was very athletic and talented in this sport, according to his family members. But at the end, it was his mortgage job that led him to the Army. After high school, Manuel chose to work and earn money while he figured out what career path to take. He worked at a golf course for a few months, and afterwards became employed at a warehouse distribution center for a major food chain. Although the warehouse job paid him well, it involved strenuous physical work, his father said. Manuel found himself worn out and sleeping all day on his days off, which prompted him to go another route and find work where he could instead maximize his intellectual potential.

It was then that a former coworker led Manuel to a job at Chase Manhattan Mortgage Corp. in Jacksonville. Manuel was hired as a mortgage file clerk and not long after, he was promoted to a file control supervisor.“He learned a lot there,” his father said. Training for the job at Chase involved learning about investments. Manuel took interest.

Manuel’s stepfather, Navy veteran J.R. Derrow, who described the young soldier as a “smart, good hearted young man, full of life,” said Manuel would call and ask about investments. According to Brice, his son had several 401k accounts, mutual funds and other sorts of investments, which had already accumulated more than what some people earn in one year’s worth of work.

“He was goal-oriented and willing to do without things to get things,” Brice said. “For a young fellow that age, he had the discipline to give a percentage of his money for investments … some of the 401s Ian said were for his kids, yet he didn’t have any yet.”

Within the year Manuel worked at Chase, his fascination with flying and helicopters ignited when he learned that a coworker at Chase had been an Army medical evacuation pilot, his father said.

Manuel joined the Army to become a pilot in 2000. He was assigned to the 571st (Air Ambulance) Medical Evacuation Company in Fort Carson, Colo., where he met his fiancee Jill Payton, who was also a member of the Company and was also stationed in Iraq with Manuel.

Brice said he still has his days when grief overtakes him.

“He was the most important thing in my life to me. There will be no grandchildren now. My life has changed just like that, with that one instance.”

However, Brice said he feels comfort in knowing his son was proud of his accomplishments in the service.

“Ian, like any person in that situation, did not want to go to Iraq,” Brice said. But, one week after his son was buried, a letter that had been mailed two days before his death arrived. “The timing couldn’t have been more perfect for our desperation. It talked about all the good they had done, how many people the Company evacuated, it was a positive letter and it was rewarding. He was feeling good about what he was doing.”

Manuel is buried at Arlington National Cemetery, where his grandfather, a pilot in World War II, also rests.

Manuel’s mother, Tita Derrow, was out of the country and not available for comment before press time.