CENTERVILLE, Ohio — Army Sgt. 1st Class Nathan Ross Chapman, the first U.S. soldier to die in Afghanistan because of hostile fire, was remembered as a tenacious, hardworking wrestler at Centerville High School.

Chapman

        Centerville is a community of 23,000 about 10 miles south of Dayton.

        “"He had incredible character and tenacity. He would never give up,” said Rich Miller, his wrestling coach. “He was not a remarkable athlete. He didn't stand out except to a coach because of the way he was. He outworked everyone else. While he was there, he just worked hard at whatever we asked him to do. He did it, 110 percent.”

        Sgt. Chapman, 31, was a Green Beret communications specialist who was killed in an ambush Friday.

        He was born at Andrews Air Force Base, Md. and his family lived in Littleton, Colo., before they moved to Centerville for his high school years.

        He entered the Army upon graduation in 1988.

        Sgt. Chapman visited his old coach's classroom a couple of years after graduation. He wore his military uniform and proudly told Mr. Miller that he was on his way to Fort Lewis, Wash., where he was going to learn “how to jump out of helicopters” and look into the Special Forces. Fort Lewis is where Mr. Chapman served most of his military career.

        “That was certainly what he was going to do,” Mr. Miller said. He thought of Mr. Chapman soon after the war in Afghanistan broke out.

        “I didn't know if he was still in. I didn't know what he was doing. And then I hear that he's killed,” he said, not surprised by how the former wrestler died because, “No. 1, he was a wrestler. He was quiet and never remarkable but always there.”

        Dave McDaniel, Centerville's retired principal, began poring through yearbooks when he learned Mr. Chapman was dead.

        “I can remember him walking through the halls. He was a nice young fellow. He was just a great, All-American kid,” he said. “If you're in wrestling, you don't mind mixing it up. And, when you tell me he was in the Green Berets, that kind of goes together. When you're in the Green Berets, you're a pretty tough nut. He was a typical American young man who probably thought this was something he wanted to do.”

        Sgt. Chapman's death reminded him of 1963 Centerville High School graduate Sonny Unger. An annual scholarship recognizes the football standout who died in Vietnam. He was leading a 21-man platoon as they struggled to hold off a 400-man North Vietnamese battalion.

        “Here's the second person who has been caught up in war,” Mr. McDaniel said. “I'm sure he was fulfilling his dream and got caught up in the cross-fire.”

        Eileen Booher, Centerville's present principal, never knew Mr. Chapman. While reviewing his days at the school, she was struck by a sense that Sgt. Chapman epitomized the motto of his graduating class, ""Individual work moves mankind.”

        “This young man was a member of our Centerville family,” she said. “What he was doing was for you and for me and for everybody. From early on, that's what he wanted to do.”

        “It's sad. He was serving his country. You would not want to have lost a member of your student body at any time. You are proud of (his) efforts but you are saddened by the results of those efforts.”

        Mike Dalton, 33, teaches social studies at Watts Middle School in Centerville. He said he was going to change his lesson plan for Monday.

        “We've been talking about the results and effects of war. One of the big things I've been trying to teach them is that, for every person that dies, 20 or 30 other people are affected.

        “It will be interesting to see what they say about this when I point out that this is one casualty. But how many other people in Centerville will that affect?”

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