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NewsJanuary 6, 2002

GEORGETOWN, Texas -- Sitting beside a framed photo of their son, Sgt. 1st Class Nathan Ross Chapman, the parents of the first U.S. soldier killed by enemy fire in Afghanistan fought back tears Saturday as they recalled his Army career. Will and Lynn Chapman said the 31-year-old Green Beret communications specialist had served in Panama, Haiti, Operation Desert Storm and then Afghanistan...

By Natalie Gott, The Associated Press

GEORGETOWN, Texas -- Sitting beside a framed photo of their son, Sgt. 1st Class Nathan Ross Chapman, the parents of the first U.S. soldier killed by enemy fire in Afghanistan fought back tears Saturday as they recalled his Army career.

Will and Lynn Chapman said the 31-year-old Green Beret communications specialist had served in Panama, Haiti, Operation Desert Storm and then Afghanistan.

"The Army took to him and he took to the Army. It was a good match up until yesterday," Will Chapman said. "I think he was a better person for going into the Army and the Army was a better place."

On Friday, Chapman had been part of a U.S. team operating near the Afghan town of Khost, a few miles from the Pakistan border, military officials said.

Officials said Chapman and a CIA officer had met local tribal leaders in Afghanistan's Paktia province, near where U.S. warplanes had struck several al-Qaida and Taliban targets in the past few weeks. After they left the meeting, the Americans were ambushed.

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Chapman was killed by small-arms fire. The CIA officer was wounded but expected to survive.

At Fort Lewis, Wash., where Chapman had been based, former colleagues praised him for his commitment to the Army and his dynamic personality.

"He was always the go-to person for people on other teams," said Capt. Edwin D. Hoenig, one of several colleagues who spoke Saturday at the base, about 30 miles south of Seattle.

Chapman was born on April 23, 1970, at Andrews Air Force Base, Md. He joined the Army after his 1988 graduation from high school in Centerville, Ohio.

"He did so well in his career. We were just amazed. He was my little boy," his mother said Saturday, wiping aware tears during an interview in her Sun City home, about 25 miles north of Austin.

Lynn Chapman said her son was a loving husband and father. The couple said they planned to travel to Seattle today to be with Chapman's widow, Renae, and children, Amanda, 2, and Brandon, 1.

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