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Jonathan Aiken: Soldier died in rough neighborhood

CNN's Jonathan Aiken reports from the Pentagon on Saturday.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In Georgetown, Texas, the father of Sgt. 1st Class Nathan Ross Chapman of the U.S. special forces said his son was a devoted husband and father. Chapman was the first American soldier to die in Afghanistan from hostile fire.

CNN's Jonathan Aiken filed a report on Saturday from the Pentagon with more on the death of the Green Beret.

JONATHAN AIKEN: The body of Sgt. Chapman is on its way to the United States. [It arrived today] at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany, one of the stops it will be making on its sad trip home.

Sgt. Chapman was a father of two from San Antonio, Texas. He was stationed at Fort Lewis from Washington State. He was part of a U.S. team that was working along with a CIA operative on the ground in eastern Afghanistan. We're told that they were working with tribal leaders in an area not far from the towns of Gardez and Khowst [where U.S. forces have been sent to prevent Taliban and al Qaeda from fleeing into Pakistan].

This is an area that the U.S. military describes as the worst of a bad neighborhood. It is the last area in Afghanistan where U.S. ground troops are actively making connections with local tribal leaders and establishing alliances -- a system that has worked well in the past, beginning with the Northern Alliance in northern Mazar-e Sharif and then the Pashtun leaders in the south.

This is the last part of Afghanistan where this is being tried. ...There are [many] bandits. There are a lot of rogue elements, a lot of freelancers with guns, al Qaeda and Taliban soldiers operating on their own. U.S. intelligence officials tell us that many of them are eager to cash in on a bounty that's been put on the head of U.S. intelligence operatives, one of which, presumably, Sgt. Chapman was working with.

The Pentagon is telling us that as these men were working with local tribal leaders, Chapman, the CIA operative and others in the U.S. party were ambushed. We're not sure by who, and exactly what kind of weapons they were firing. Chapman, we were told, was killed in an exchange of gunfire. The CIA operative was severely wounded and was evacuated from Afghanistan.

While 10 Americans have been killed or wounded in this conflict, Sgt. Chapman is the first to die of hostile fire in Afghanistan. The head of the U.S. Central Command, Tommy Franks, the man who heads up the operation in Afghanistan, says it's tough to lose a single soldier in combat, even when you know that it's going to happen.

...His parents released this statement in which they said they were proud of their son, that he loved serving in the military, was devoted to his country and considered the military to be his second family.