FORT BRAGG, N.C. — The University of Maine graduate who succumbed to combat wounds in Afghanistan last week was a translator on his second tour in the country, according to the Army.

Sgt. Nicholas A. Robertson, who graduated from UMaine in 2005, was a linguist with a unit of the 3rd Special Forces Group who was wounded during combat Thursday in eastern Ghazni Province. Robertson was taken to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Landstuhl, Germany, where he died the next day.

The Army has not released details of how Robertson was wounded.

The soldier’s unit was sent to Afghanistan last year. It was his second tour of duty in the country, according to a statement from the U.S. Army Special Forces Command.

Robertson, 27, joined the Army shortly after he earned a bachelor’s degree from UMaine in May of 2005. He studied philosophy and was inducted into the school’s Phi Beta Kappa honor society in 2003, according to the organization's Web site.

Robertson lived in Old Town when he joined the military and was assigned to Fort Bragg, N.C. in March of 2006, according to the Army.

His parents, David and Nancy, live in Venice, Fla. They did not immediately return a telephone message this afternoon.

Robertson is the first Maine soldier to die in Afghanistan since last year. Sgt. Edmund McDonald died on March 28, 2007, when his vehicle tipped over while he was traveling in a convoy with the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division.