The Pentagon announced this morning that a soldier from Virginia was killed Tuesday in Afghanistan.

First Lt. Benjamin J. Hall, 24, of Fredericksburg, was killed when insurgents attacked his unit during combat in Chowkay Valley, according to a news release. Hall was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment (Airborne), 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, Vicenza, Italy.

A spokesman with the Southern European Task Force in Italy said this morning that Hall's parents live in Fredericksburg

At the age of 10, Benjamin J. Hall began preparing for the journey that several generations of men in his family took.

On Tuesday that journey was cut short.

Hall, 24 and a first lieutenant in the Army, was killed during an ambush in Afghanistan, according to family members and the Department of Defense.

The graduate of Hylton Senior High School died of gunshot wounds during a battle in Chowkay Valley, according to a DoD news release.

His father, a retired Army colonel, said his son, for unknown reasons, walked into the open and was shot through the upper right chest area - a "devastating" wound that Hall's father said likely killed his son instantly.

"He was an amazing young man," John Hall said in a telephone interview this morning.

More than a year ago, Hall graduated from Ranger School at Fort Benning, Ga.

His father and mother, Sarah, were there to pin the Ranger tab on their oldest son.

"He looked in the mirror and said: 'This is 13 years in the making,'" his father recalled.

As an Army brat, he made many places his home, including Woodbridge.

The Hall family first moved here in 1991, left two years later and came back twice - once in 1996 and again in 2000. In 2003 the family moved to Fredericksburg, where they still live.

Graduating from high school in 2001, the tall, blond-hair and blue-eyed Hall left to attend Michigan Technological University where he earned a degree in political science in 2005.

Six weeks after graduation Hall was at Fort Benning, his father said.

Before being deployed to Afghanistan in May, Hall came home from Italy, where he was based, to surprise his older sister at her wedding. After that, he called several times, his father said, but mostly e-mailed.

In those e-mails, though, he never once mentioned the gunfights he saw or the losses his unit sustained.

It wasn't until John Hall spoke with his son's battalion commander Wednesday evening that he learned that the unit had been engaged in combat on a daily basis and that it was only within hours of landing in Afghanistan that the unit suffered its first casualty.

"I knew it in the bottom of my heart," he said. "But when you're confronted with the facts, you realize the hell your son went through."

Hall, described as funny and outgoing, but never boastful, always handled chaos well, his father said.

"He was a dynamic young man," John Hall said. "He was so adept at [handling tense situations].... He was a giver."

"All of our kids are fantastic," he added as his voice trailed off. "He remains fantastic."

Hall was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment (Airborne), 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team based in Vicenza, Italy.

He is survived by his parents, two sisters, Katherine and Melissa, and a brother, Joe. He will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.