| OUR HERO - SSG KEITH "MATT" MAUPIN |
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Matt is coming home. Fox 19 broke the sad news to the public this date, March 30, 2008. Please read the Fox 19 story below. Staff Sgt. Maupin was captured in April 2004 when gunmen armed with rocket propelled grenades attacked his convoy west of Baghdad. Please pray for Keith and Carolyn Maupin, the wonderful family of OUR HERO, Staff Sgt. Keith "Matt" Maupin. God bless Matt and his family. |
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Biographical Sketch |
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MAUPIN, Keith "Matt"
Name: Keith "Matt" Maupin
April 19, 2004 -
ARMY Changes Status to MISSING CAPTURED
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground Other Personnel in Incident: Six other Kellogg, Brown & Root employees; Thomas Hamill; Sgt. Elmer C. Krause
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| Biography - provided by
WikipediA |
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Keith Matthew "Matt" Maupin (13 July 1983–) was a United States Army PFC captured by Iraqi insurgents on April 9, 2004 while serving in the Iraq War after his convoy came under attack by rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire near Baghdad, Iraq. On June 28, 2004, Al Jazeera reported that he was executed by his captors who shot him in the head. On June 30, 2004, an Army spokesman said the video showing Maupin's alleged death was "totally inconclusive." Born on July 13, 1983 in Batavia, Ohio, Maupin was a 3.5 grade-point-average student and football player at Glen Este High School in Union Township, Clermont County, Ohio. He graduated in 2001 and enrolled in the University of Cincinnati Aerospace Engineering Program using a scholarship that he received from winning a writing competition. In 2002 he joined the United States Army Reserve and was stationed with the 705th Transportation Battalion based in Dayton, Ohio, Ohio. Maupin began basic training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina and continued on to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri for training as a Motor Transport Operator (88M). By the time he had completed training in spring of 2003, the 705th Transportation Battalion had deployed to Iraq and Maupin assigned to the 643rd Area Support Group out of Whitehall, Ohio. While fulfilling his monthly obligations as a reservist, Maupin worked at Sam's Club warehouse store and continued courses at the University of Cincinnati. In November 2003 Maupin was transferred to the recently mobilized 724th Transportation Company based out of Bartonville, Illinois. Maupin and the 724th arrived in Kuwait on February 20, 2004 and on March 5 proceeded to Camp Anaconda, Iraq to begin missions delivering fuel to various coalition installations. On April 9, 2004, Maupin's fuel convoy came under attack near the Baghdad International Airport. In what was described as a 5-mile long ambush, the 26-vehicle serial was pummeled by gunfire, mortar rounds and RPGs, disabling many of the civilian fuel tankers and Army vehicles. After the remnants of the convoy reached safe ground it was learned that around ten soldiers and civilian KBR contractors were wounded while one soldier and a civilian driver had been killed in the battle. PFC Maupin was among the nine people unaccounted for – seven civilians and two soldiers. One of the missing civilian drivers, Thomas Hamill, had been taken hostage during the ambush and escaped his captors on May 2, 2004. The bodies of five other civilians and the second soldier were subsequently recovered (all are thought to have been killed in the ambush); Civilian driver Timothy Bell remains missing and is presumed dead since he never appeared in a hostage video. On April 16, 2004, Maupin appeared on a videotape broadcast by the Arabic-language TV network Al Jazeera. The tape, reportedly delivered to the U.S. Embassy in Doha, Qatar, raised hopes that Maupin was still alive. In the video, the soldier identified himself as "Private First Class Keith Matthew Maupin", a standard procedure followed by prisoners of war which protect their rights under the Third Geneva Convention. [The paragraph originally located here in the WikipediA info has been intentionally deleted by Rolling Thunder® Ohio Chapter 2 Web Master] Maupin has been promoted three times since he was declared missing in action, first from Private First Class to Specialist, then to Sergeant, then lastly, Staff Sergeant.
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We thank Gina Chon, Cincinnati, for writing this article and keeping Staff Sgt. Matt Maupin's in everyone hearts and minds. Ms. Chon is an Iraq Correspondent for the Wall Street Journal. Her article appeared on the front page of the Wall Street Journal - you can't get any better placement than that. Ms. Chon is our Hero too for
keeping the POW/MIA issues alive and in front of the public. Job
well done Ms. Chon. Please keep up your efforts - we love you for
what you are doing and I know Matt loves you too. |
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The disappearance in Iraq of Army Reserve Staff Sgt. Matthew Maupin turned his parents into activists. They speak at rallies, have met eight times with President Bush and have sent 9,000 care packages to soldiers in Iraq, each containing 10 wallet-sized photos of their son, missing nearly four years. "Matt's in trouble," says Keith Maupin, Matthew's father, who quit his home-construction job to run a soldier-support center that he and his former wife founded. Now living off savings, Mr. Maupin says, "I don't need much. He needs me."In Ann Arbor, Mich., the parents of missing Army Reserve Sgt. Ahmed Altaie are no less committed to finding their son. Yet they avoid ceremonies honoring him and other missing soldiers. They often shun reporters, hoping to curry favor with their son's captors in Iraq. "We don't want to make the kidnappers angry," says Nawal Altaie, Ahmed's mother. The two families haven't met or spoken, but they share a peculiar anguish. Their sons are two of only four soldiers categorized as "missing-captured" in the Iraq war. In Afghanistan, no U.S. soldiers are missing. The handful of families with lost sons grieve in isolation. The small list of Iraq's missing is a big change from previous American wars. In Vietnam, Pentagon officials designated some 2,600 soldiers either as a Prisoner of War or as Missing in Action. Their plight became a symbol of that conflict's deep wounds for decades to come. There are still efforts to recover missing remains from World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam. The reasons for the smaller numbers in this war are straight-forward: There are fewer troops on the ground in Iraq, and U.S. commanders largely have control over the battlefield. Technological advances like satellite phones and imagery help make tracking troops easier. And commanders can deploy big search parties and offer rewards. Countless lost soldiers in Iraq have been found within hours or days of going missing. Military officials, meanwhile, have quietly dropped the emotionally charged designation for Iraq's military missing. Following Vietnam, "POW" and "MIA" became acrimonious acronyms as veterans' supporters accused the government of doing too little to find and bring home missing soldiers. Behind the new designation -- "missing/captured" -- is the Bush administration's argument that terrorist captors don't warrant the use of terms recognized by the Geneva Convention. The families of the four soldiers missing in Iraq say the new designation, while accurate and inoffensive, is so unfamiliar that the public doesn't understand it. "Nobody knows what 'missing-captured' means," says Carolyn Maupin, Sgt. Maupin's mother. "We always call Matt a POW. People understand that." All four of the missing U.S. military personnel in Iraq belonged to the Army, whose soldiers constitute more than 80% of American forces there. Two of the missing are Army Sgt. Alex Jimenez and Army Pvt. First Class Byron Fouty. Both are members of the 10th Mountain Division, based in Fort Drum, New York. They were captured together during an attack last May.
Of course, their hope is that the two men will be found alive before then. But haunting all of these families is the fate of Private First Class Joseph Anzack Jr., who went missing along with Messrs. Fouty and Jimenez. Almost two weeks after his disappearance, the body of Mr. Anzack was found in the Euphrates River. The Pentagon says it hasn't given up on any of Iraq's missing. It is continuing to pay their salaries, to their designated beneficiaries. If a body is found, life insurance will be paid. U.S. commanders still send out search missions for the two Mountain Division soldiers. Army commanders have formed a 10-man task force to seek fresh information about their whereabouts. Last October, Navy dive teams and dogs searched areas along the Euphrates River near where the two went missing. Apache helicopters circled overhead, and American troops handed out fliers with pictures of the two. Last month, the U.S. military arrested two suspects believed to be related to their capture. For the longest-missing U.S. soldiers, Sgts. Maupin and Altaie, the trail has gone cold, spurring their families to employ two very different strategies. Signing Up Matt Maupin grew up about 20 miles from Cincinnati in the town of Batavia, Ohio, played football in high school and later worked at the local Sam's Club. While studying nutritional science at the University of Cincinnati, he joined the Army Reserves in 2002 to earn money for school. He deployed in February 2004 as a private in the 724th Transportation Company based out of Bartonsville, Ill. He was 20 years old.
Chaos gripped Iraq when he arrived there that March. That month, four American security contractors were killed in Fallujah, west of Baghdad, inciting widespread violence. Anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army was fighting American troops in Baghdad and elsewhere. In April, the U.S. issued an arrest warrant for the cleric. Four days later, Sgt. Maupin was riding in a truck, part of a security escort for a 26-vehicle convoy of fuel supply tankers and Army vehicles headed to the Baghdad airport. As they traversed the Abu Ghraib district of Baghdad, insurgents hiding in ditches and nearby homes launched an ambush. In a hail of mortar rounds, rocket-propelled grenades and gunfire, attackers destroyed most of the convoy. Two people died in the attack and 10 were wounded. Two soldiers and seven civilians were missing. The bodies of five civilians and one of the soldiers were later found, but Sgt. Maupin wasn't among them. The military set up a task force to search for him. Troops conducted raids and detained suspects. But many roads in Baghdad were unsafe, and insurgents constantly attacked convoys, making it difficult to gather evidence. "It's like trying to find a needle in a haystack," says Staff Sgt. Michael Bailey, who worked with the missing soldier in Iraq and helped look for him. Terrifying Video A week after his disappearance, Sgt. Maupin appeared in a video with men carrying guns and wearing scarves to hide their faces. The group -- calling itself the Sharp Sword Against the Enemies of God and His Prophet -- said it could swap Sgt. Maupin for prisoners held by the U.S. But weeks passed without any further communications. Then in June, Al-Jazeera broadcast a grainy video of a blindfolded man it identified at Sgt. Maupin. The network said the next scene, which it didn't air, showed the man being shot in the head. But the U.S. Army said a few days later that it wasn't clear who the person in the video really was. In early May, one of the missing contractors from the ambush escaped his captors, but he had no information about Sgt. Maupin and had learned little of the men who held him. The other missing contractor was never found but is presumed dead. Back in Ohio, military officials, friends and neighbors initially swarmed the homes of Mr. Maupin and his former wife. Friendly since their divorce more than 15 years earlier, the Maupins became partners in the campaign to find their son. Mr. and Mrs. Maupin have seen the video that Al-Jazeera claimed shows their son being shot, but they don't believe the victim was him. They call their son a 24-year-old, though he hasn't been seen since age 20. As the media clamored for interviews, the Maupins became star attractions at Veterans' Day ceremonies and Memorial Day parades. They thought the press attention would help the public, and the kidnappers, get to know their son as a person. Beating the Drum But as months passed, demand for interviews faded, and the Maupins realized it was up to them to keep their son's case in the limelight. So in August 2004, the Maupins opened the Yellow Ribbon Support Center in a strip mall on the outskirts of Cincinnati. They've raised thousands of dollars for scholarships and computers for troops in Iraq. The Yellow Ribbon center has a front room plastered with pictures and paintings of Sgt. Maupin, POW/MIA emblems and cards of support. In the back are shelves stocked with deodorant, shampoo and candy to send to Iraq. Each box the center sends out contains 10 photos of Sgt. Maupin. A sticker on the back of each reads, "Please place me in your bible and say a prayer for me. I'm captured in Iraq, and prayers can set me free." The military used to make frequent appearances at the center and at Mrs. Maupin's home, but that has dwindled to four visits a year, the Maupins say. They haven't received any new updates for some time, and they worry the Army has reached the limit of what it will do for their son. Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, a U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, says the search for Sgt. Maupin and the other missing-captured soldiers continues and won't stop until they are found, alive or dead. The military pays for the couple to fly to Washington every three months for a briefing. They've also met President Bush in private meetings on Air Force One and in limousine meetings when he's in the Cincinnati area. Mr. Bush has also met them at the Pentagon and called them on several occasions to ask how they are doing. Mr. Maupin, his beard long and scraggly, says he won't shave until his son returns. "I want them to resolve this," he says. "They sure as hell are not going to leave him in Iraq." In Batavia, homes, storefronts and Sgt. Maupin's old high school are plastered with yellow ribbons, flags and signs of support. Mrs. Maupin replaces yellow ribbons and bows near her home every two weeks. She still buys Christmas gifts for Matt, piling them up in his packed room filled with letters, POW/MIA flags and gifts from around the world. In her dining room is what she calls her 365-day Christmas tree, displayed year round. She won't take it down until her son comes home. Iraqi-U.S. Saga Nawal and Kousay Altaie sent their son to the U.S. in 1979 to join his older brother in the hopes he'd have a better life there. Initially, he lived with relatives in Dearborn, Mich., which has a large Arab-American population. Weary of life under Saddam Hussein, the couple joined their sons in Michigan in 1993. After attending high school in Detroit, Sgt. Altaie worked as a mechanic at different airports around the country and on the side was studying to become an engineer like his father. After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, he lost his job and spent months trying to figure out what to do next. Like many Iraqi-Americans, he decided to visit his native country with his parents after the U.S. invasion in 2003. Sgt. Altaie enjoyed life back home, meeting a woman he would eventually marry. When he returned to the U.S. several months later, he decided to join the Army Reserves to help his native country and his adopted one. He was twice the age of most of the recruits and found the physical requirements of basic training strenuous. But completing the training boosted his confidence. He arrived in Iraq in November 2005 as a translator for a military reconstruction team in Baghdad. The group was based in the tightly guarded "Green Zone," controlled by American forces. "He seemed happier," his mother says. "We worried about him, but we thought he was in the Green Zone, so maybe he was safer." But Sgt. Altaie also took chances outside the Green Zone. On several occasions, he left base to run errands and visit his wife, whom he had married earlier in the year. That was against military rules, and he kept his excursions secret. Risky Venture One day in late October 2006, the 41-year-old Sgt. Altaie sneaked into town and visited several mechanics to get his new motorcycle fixed. Later, he met a friend. Just after 4 p.m., he made his way toward his wife's home in the then-volatile Karrada neighborhood of Baghdad to celebrate the first day of the Muslim holiday, Eid al-Fitr. As Sgt. Altaie approached his wife's home, several men in three vehicles pulled up and grabbed him. At the time, Sgt. Altaie was on the phone with the friend he had just visited; the friend heard the sound of a phone dropping and of Sgt. Altaie's wife screaming, begging the captors to let him go. Handcuffing him, the gunmen threw him in the back of a car. The friend called Sgt. Altaie's phone 10 minutes later, and an unidentified man answered, saying Sgt. Altaie had been taken by the Mahdi Army, the militia controlled by Mr. Sadr. The friend, who declined to be named because he is worried about family in Baghdad, immediately called the Altaies in Michigan. When Kousay Altaie heard the news, he slammed his fist on a table. The family started calling relatives in Iraq to see if any could help their son. They also called the U.S. Army. Officials hadn't known Sgt. Altaie had left the Green Zone. After they heard of the kidnapping, commanders deployed more than 2,000 troops to Sadr City, a neighborhood under the effective control of the Mahdi Army, and elsewhere. They set up checkpoints and blocked off swaths of Baghdad. Under pressure from Mr. Sadr, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki protested the lockdown, and the U.S. military eventually relented, re-opening the area to traffic. But tensions flared. Troops clashed with Mahdi Army gunmen. U.S. raids, air strikes and arrests continued. The U.S. military announced a $50,000 reward for information on the missing soldier. In Ann Arbor, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents and military officials converged on the Altaie home, wiretapping phones in case the kidnappers called and interviewing relatives. The family called on a well-connected relative, Nawal Altaie's brother, who worked for Ahmed Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress, which had been a major ally of the U.S. Three days after Sgt. Altaie's disappearance, the kidnappers emailed a ransom demand to his family, asking for $250,000. The Altaies asked for proof their son was still alive before they paid, but they never heard back from the kidnappers. Months passed without any news. Then, on Feb. 14, 2007, CNN aired a video of Sgt. Altaie. His lips were moving, but the video had no sound. Militants who called themselves the Ahl al-Bayt brigade issued a statement: "We warn the American people of the result of sending their soldiers to Iraq so they don't face the same fate." The Altaies were overjoyed to see their son alive. But they also thought he looked tired. It's the last substantiated news they've had. Lack of Sympathy Mrs. Altaie considered going on Arab television to appeal for her son's release, but her husband ruled against it, fearing it would anger the captors. They heard an Arab television commentator question why there was so much attention aimed at Sgt. Altaie when many Iraqis were suffering and his family was in America, safe and living a good life. It seemed to the Altaies that other Arabs didn't have much sympathy for them, and this was all the more reason to keep quiet, the family thought. The Altaies have considered visiting Iraq, but have been warned that they too could be kidnapped. The visits and calls from the military have faded. Military officials have said they believe Sgt. Altaie is still alive, but they have offered no evidence to support that belief. "We just want to know what happened to him," Mrs. Altaie says. "They don't have news for us anymore." A yellow ribbon and plastic yellow rose, given to them by a neighbor, hangs above a "Support Our Troops" sign on the front door of the Altaie's two-story home in a quiet co-op complex. The Altaies didn't understand what the ribbon and rose symbolized until the neighbor told them. The Altaies spend most of their days watching Arab television and seeing relatives or Iraqi friends in their living room, which is decorated with sayings from the Koran and a few family pictures. There are three photos of Sgt. Altaie. Mrs. Altaie weeps when she remembers how her son used to call her nearly every morning to let her know he was okay. She isn't interested in talking to other families of missing soldiers. She worries her English isn't good enough, and she knows talking to them won't bring her son back. "When Ahmed comes back, we'll have a big
party and invite everyone," she says. |
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![[Missing in Action]](http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/P1-AK318_MIAjum_20080125224625.jpg) |
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![[The parents of Keith Matthew Maupin]](http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-AY657_mia_pa_20080125165519.jpg)
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Where is Matt - We want to know
- So we asked our government officials - Read on |
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Rolling Thunder® Ohio Chapter 2 is chronicling efforts to get the DPMO (Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office) to give us current information on the whereabouts of our Hero - Staff Sgt. Keith Matt Maupin. The following gives actions taken in date order: |
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OHIO CHAPTER 2 LETTER OF REQUEST
Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO)
Re: Keith Matthew “Matt” Maupin, POW – Iraqi War Gentlemen, I’m writing to inquire and get information on the DPMO’s efforts to determine the whereabouts of Staff Sgt. Keith Matthew “Matt” Maupin, U.S. Army Reserves, 724th Transportation Company, Bartonville, Ill. SSG Maupin was captured April 9, 2004, west of Baghdad, Iraq. I, along with many of my fellow patriots, am following any and all efforts made by the DPMO to return SSG Maupin to his family. As of the date of this letter, however, we’ve heard no current information on the whereabouts of SSG Maupin. The last article published in the Cincinnati Enquirer (http://www.cincinnati.com/news/maupin/) is dated in April 2005. We’re all concerned that the DPMO has dropped the mission of locating SSG Maupin and need to be brought up-to-date on your progress, therefore, I am respectfully requesting that the DPMO provide me with current information on the DPMO’s efforts to locate SSG Keith Matthew Maupin. If you are unwilling and/or unable to provide me with current information on your efforts to locate SSG Maupin, please give me the necessary instructions on how to go about getting such information and from whom I can get the information. Thank you in advance for your timely response to my request. Sincerely yours, George D. “Danny” Griffin Webmaster
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DPMO's OFFICIAL RESPONSE |
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What Do You Think of the DPMO's Response?? That's all of the DPMO response; if you can call the DPMO letter a "response." Our inquiry as to the whereabouts of our Hero - Staff Sgt. Matt Maupin - goes unanswered. I guess this is the standard jargon type letter that the population of concerned Americans get from the DPMO. I truly hope that the Maupin family is getting current information but I have serious doubts that anyone is getting any current info. Ohio Chapter 2 corresponded with Ms. Lynn O'Shea, who publishes her "Bits N Pieces" for the National Alliance of Families for the Return of America's Missing Servicemen. Ms. O'shea stated that she didn't have any more current information on Staff Sgt. Matt Maupin other than what she published in her October 2006 newsletter. If someone of Ms. O'Shea's status cannot obtain current information, I doubt if anyone can. Guess what - Ohio Chapter 2 is not giving up. We're going to hang in there with all those who are waiting for Matt to be returned safely to his family, friends and supporters. Before we write to President Bush, Ohio Chapter 2 will write back to Mr. Ray and see if he will give us a contact name of someone in the U.S. Army who is willing to share current information on the safety and whereabouts of Staff Sgt. Maupin. |
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Chapter 2 disappointed in the DPMO's Response
Mr. Charles A.
Ray Re: Keith Matthew “Matt” Maupin, POW – Iraq Dear Mr.
Ray, Webmaster |
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Sure takes a long time for a letter to get to the DPMO???
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If you look at the time line on sending and receiving requests to the DPMO, you can readily understand the frustration experienced when corresponding with the DPMO - takes forever for a letter to be turned around. Read on:
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Based on Ms. Chon's article above, Rolling Thunder Ohio® Chapter 2 is not the only group that isn't getting any current information on our Hero, Matt Maupin. Additionally, as you can see from Ms. Chon's article, the Maupin family is getting little information - only four visitations a year. Ms. Chon's article also states that the Maupins haven't received any new updates for some time and that the Maupins worry that the Army has reached the limit of what they are willing to do for Matt. Thanks a lot DPMO, Sec. of Defense and Dept. of the Army - thanks for nothing.
Fox 19 reports that Staff Sgt. Matt Maupin is coming home. Fox 19 reports the Maupins confirm D-N-A is from body of son. Click here to read Fox 19 report.
God Bless Matt Maupin and his family. |
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Maupin Parents Meet President Bush on Missing Son |
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Where is Matt Maupin? It’s Been Almost Three Years Since the U.S. Soldier Was Kidnapped, but He Still Hasn’t Been Found
By MARCUS BARAM Jan. 14, 2007 — In the village of Batavia, Ohio, a community that prides itself on its clean-cut values, it's hard not to notice Keith Maupin. With a gray and scraggly beard that hangs down below his chest, the 56-year-old is known by everyone. Maupin hasn't shaved his facial hair in almost three years — not since April 9, 2004, to be exact. That's the day Maupin's son, Matt, a soldier serving in Iraq, was kidnapped by militants who ambushed his convoy outside Baghdad with rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire. Since then, a special Army task force has pursued countless leads and engaged in at least 200 missions to search for him, but Sgt. Maupin has not yet been found and remains the longest-missing U.S. soldier in the current Iraq conflict. "It gets frustrating," says Keith Maupin, who has vowed not to shave his beard until his son returns. "It's been almost three years, and they haven't found hide nor hair of him. I don't know what they're doing, but it's not working out right." Maupin and his ex-wife, Carolyn, are among the most active military families in the country. They've set up the Yellow Ribbon Military Support Center, which has become a full-time job for the couple. And at the Sam's Club where Matt used to work stocking shelves, his father has sent 170,000 photos of Matt around the world to keep his memory alive. Keith Maupin is persistent. He has talked to President Bush seven times and asked numerous generals and commanders about what they're doing to find his son. When the president once asked him when he would cut his hair, Maupin responded: "When you bring Matt home." Every three months, the Maupins head to the Pentagon to get updates from military personnel — they're leaving in three weeks for the next visit. And they're trying to stay patient as the information has slowed to a trickle. "It has been dry for a while. They've had no major leads in a long time." The biggest lead so far has also been the most disheartening. A week after Maupin's convoy was ambushed, a video depicting the soldier was delivered to the U.S. Embassy in Doha, Qatar, and aired on Al-Jazeera. It raised hopes that Matt Maupin was still alive, since he identified himself by his military rank, which is standard procedure for prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions. But two months later, another video was aired from a previously unknown group calling itself Persistent Power Against the Enemies of God and the Prophet. The tape purports to show Maupin being executed by gunshot, but the Pentagon has determined that the videotape was inconclusive and Maupin's parents don't believe it's him. "It was so grainy that you couldn't tell whether he was black or white," says Keith Maupin. "I pray that these guys who have him show compassion." Others believe that the tape looks legitimate, and that Maupin is most likely dead after all this time and amid the chaos of Iraq. "Looking at the video, it sure looks like Keith," says Daniel O'Shea, the former coordinator of the Pentagon's Hostage Working Group, which is dedicated to recovering soldiers and contractors who've been kidnapped in Iraq. "I don't hold out a tremendous amount of hope." The day that Maupin was kidnapped was a mix of chaos, blood and miscommunication for his unit. The route taken by his convoy passed several abandoned buildings sheltering insurgents and was notorious for rocket attacks, improvised explosive devices and mortar fire. Just days before, a soldier in Maupin's unit, Staff Sgt. Mike Bailey, barely survived the treacherous road that was dubbed Swords. "There were gun battles that morning — only speed and suppressive fire got us through," Bailey tells ABCNEWS.com. On the day that Maupin's convoy was set to head out, Bailey says there were debates about which route to follow and some miscommunication about the danger of Swords. Just minutes before the convoy began its journey, a soldier in the highway-safety office at Camp Anaconda tried warning the unit, "Sorry, looks like Sword is closed until further notice." But the soldier mistakenly sent the e-mail to himself, according to an article in Esquire magazine. The Pentagon declined to comment on the report. "When the lieutenant gave them the safety briefing, I was sick to my stomach," says Bailey, whose convoy was supposed to follow Maupin's group about 20 minutes later. "Because I knew something would happen." At first, insurgents hit the 26-vehicle convoy with machine-gun fire. Then, Maupin and his group were hit by mortar rounds and rocket-propelled grenades, damaging the fuel tankers and Army vehicles. The driver of Maupin's truck was killed as it caught on fire and ran off the road. When the dust cleared, two soldiers and six civilian contractors had been killed, 10 soldiers and contractors had been wounded and nine people were unaccounted for. One of the missing drivers, Thomas Hamill, was taken hostage but escaped his captors on May 2, 2004. Another driver, Timothy Bell, remains missing and is presumed dead. "The ambush worked according to the way they had it worked out," says Bailey. "It was textbook perfect." Soon after Maupin was nabbed, the military set up a small task force of four or five soldiers led by an officer tasked with finding the missing soldier. The task force conducts weekly meetings about Maupin's case with the Hostage Working Group. Working on leads it gets from local Iraqis and detainees, the U.S. military has raided towns, searched fields and prisons to find him. "No stone was unturned for Keith Maupin," says O'Shea. "You can never say never. Look at [contractor] Roy Hallums, who was in a hole in the ground for 311 days. We had nothing on him for months and the consensus was that he'd been killed. And then we brought him back alive." O'Shea shares the concerns of some POW/MIA groups that Maupin may never be found, that the militants who nabbed Maupin — and others who know of his whereabouts — may have been killed in Baghdad's violent mayhem over the last two years. But he remains convinced that there must still be traces left. "Someone in Iraq knows where Keith is buried," says O'Shea. "The way the tribal communities work over there and the way that information travels, there are more than four people who know where he is." Of all the American soldiers and contractors who have been kidnapped in Iraq, 5 percent were rescued, 2 percent escaped, 30 percent were released, 35 percent were killed and 20 percent are still missing from April 2004 to April 2006, according to O'Shea. Aside from Maupin, Iraqi-American soldier Ahmed Qusai al-Taayie is the only other U.S. soldier still missing. There are also several American contractors who have been kidnapped and who have not yet been recovered. During the first Gulf War, pilot Scott Speicher's F/A-18 was shot down over Iraq and he remains missing in action. And, by some estimates, at least 2,500 U.S. soldiers who fought in the Vietnam War remain missing. But in Batavia, where yellow ribbons and American flags are ubiquitous, the community has not given up hope for Maupin. Every day, neighbors come in to make donations for the care packages that the Maupins send to soldiers in Iraq and to offer their support to the family. And Maupin's unit hasn't forgotten about him either. Bailey is going back to Iraq for his third tour in a few months and his mission will be looking for his friend. Sustained by memories of Maupin — his love of the music of Three Doors Down and his physical strength ("We had a push-up contest in Kuwait and he won. Wearing his bulletproof vest and helmet, he did 100 push-ups"), Bailey plans to talk to commanders and soldiers about the search. "I'd really like to get out there and hunt for him — we won't rest until we bring Matt back."
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New Effort or Last Ditch Effort Lynn O'Shea New Effort or Last Ditch Effort – On October 13th WKRC 12 Cincinnati reported on a new effort to locate Sgt. Matt Maupin, Prisoner of War in Iraq. According to the story filed by Local 12 reporter Paul Adler; "A new push by the Army to find Sergeant Matt Maupin has resulted in a paid advertisement that appeared on Iraqi television. A military official, close to the project, told Local 12 the ad produced no new leads during its run. That official also expressed doubts that Matt Maupin is alive. We want to make it clear, this military official requested his name be withheld as part of our report." "Tonight he shows us the ad.... You may not understand the spoken words, but here's the translation. "Help heal the pain of these separated families." The ad is a plea to find Matt Maupin, but you don't see him until 15 seconds after the start. His parents don't appear for another 20 seconds....." "An official in Iraq, close to the production of the ad, told us the men who attacked Matt's convoy are hard core opponents, very little will get them to talk. The military official told us the ad focused on Iraqis because, he says, the majority of Iraqis don't care what happens to Americans." "Carolyn Maupin: "I'm just hoping and praying there's someone over there that's a little bit different than that. Maybe they feel a little bit differently, believe a little differently." "Our source told us the ad produced no new leads. He went on to say it's decreasingly likely that we'll elicit information on Matt's location and increasingly likely he's dead or deceased. As you might expect, those are fighting words for Army officials who speak on the record, and they're fighting words for Matt's parents, too." " Carolyn Maupin: "We're to keep our hope up. And praying until they can prove to us 100 percent either way. And that's what I'm going to do. And I realize we only have a 50/50 chance here, but I'm not going the low road. I'm going the high road." "The Army's official stance is we're committed to tracking all leads. The goal is to return Staff Sergeant Matt Maupin. We have no substantiated evidence he's deceased..... While others express doubts, Matt's parents expect no less than a safe return." "Keith Maupin: Just bring Matt home. That's all I ask from you." #################### Is the Army Preparing to Declare Matt Maupin Dead - Several months ago we were told, by a very well placed individual, that the Army believed Sgt. Maupin is dead and would like to change his status. We did not report this information, as we usually like a least a second source confirmation. WKRC has now confirmed that that information. While the WKRC story is soft in it’s wording, no punches were pulled when we were told the Army believes Maupin is dead. When we were told of this information, we asked why the Army had not acted, on the status. Our answer was a pointed look, with a "Well....." That trailed off into a shrug of the shoulders. Our response was "the POW/MIA groups." There was a slight nod of the head and the topic was changed.
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Promotion Announced - WCPO.com / 9News provides the following information on our Hero - Staff Sgt. Matt Maupin |
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Matt Maupin Promoted By Army Union Township soldier Matt Maupin has been promoted by the Army from sergeant to staff sergeant. Maupin hasn't been seen since being captured by insurgents on April 9, 2004, in Baghdad. Maupin remains the only soldier listed as missing in Iraq. Maupin's
mother, Carolyn, told 9News Tuesday that she is happy about
the promotion and the family hasn't heard anything else new
on his status.
Missing Local Soldier
Inducted Into NCO Corps
Missing Tri-state soldier Matt Maupin will be inducted in the non-commissioned officer corps Saturday during a ceremony in Reynoldsburg, Ohio. The ceremony signifies the soldier is ready for more responsibilty and leadership positions. The soldier from Batavia was captured when his convoy was attacked in Iraq in April 2004. Maupin is the only soldier listed as "captured" for Operation Iraqi Freedom.
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April 3, 2006 |
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Lone U.S. Soldier Remains Missing By Joyce Howard Price April 3, 2006 Sunday will mark the second
anniversary of the capture near Baghdad of Army Reserve Sgt. Keith
Matthew "Matt" Maupin of Batavia, Ohio, the only U.S. soldier not
accounted for in the three years of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
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Ohio
Chapter 2 received the following transmission from Ms.
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Maupin
Family Angry at Army The parents of the
military’s only soldier listed as missing-captured said
they’ve “had enough” of the Army’s breakdown in alerting
them to developments in the search for their son, Sgt. Keith
“Matt” Maupin. Lynn O'Shea |
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There is new
information tonight on the search for missing Union Township
soldier Matt Maupin. |
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Base Dedicates Computer Lab in Name of Soldier Captured in IraqBy Sgt. Jason Mikeworth, USA |
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LOGISTICS SUPPORT
AREA ANACONDA, The Sgt. Matt Maupin Computer Lab was made possible by the donation of 35 computers by Maupin's parents, Keith and Carolyn Maupin. Another 55 donated computers will be used to set up the Sgt. Matt Maupin Internet Cafe here. Maupin, of Batavia, Ohio, is assigned to the 724th Transportation Company, an Army Reserve unit based out of Bartonville, Ill. Maupin deployed to Iraq in February 2004. On April 9, 2004, the one-year anniversary of the fall of Baghdad, Maupin was on a convoy to deliver fuel when it was attacked near the Baghdad International Airport by a force of nearly 200 insurgents. They attacked with small-arms fire, rocket-propelled grenades, machine-gun fire and improvised explosive devices. Shortly after the attack, Maupin's status was listed as "whereabouts unknown." On April 16, 2004, Maupin was shown alive in a video on the Al-Jazeera television network, and his status was officially changed to captured. "This lab will allow all warriors who are serving in Iraq to stay in touch with their families, pursue education, or simply enjoy some personal time surfing the World Wide Web," said Army Brig. Gen. Yves Fontaine, the commander of the 1st Corps Support Command and LSA Anaconda. "We open the doors to this facility with the hope that Matt will be found soon." The Maupins dedicated the computers soldiers' personal use, said Sgt. Maj. Angela Adams, of the 301st Corps Support Group and the non-commissioned officer in charge of the Education Center. A chief complaint of Maupin during phone calls home was the difficulty he had accessing a computer to e-mail home. Adams also noted the marked improvement over the previous set up. "We used to have 10 laptops that everyone was using," Adams said. "We've had about 8,000 users so far, and that was just on our little laptops." Adams said she envisions more soldiers being able to complete online college classes and correspondence courses. "Now we'll get more users, and the system is so much faster. It'll give them more services, and more users will be able to use (the computers)," Adams said. "From 10 to 35, you just can't beat it." Some special improvements had to be made at the Education Center to accommodate the gift, said Army Master Sgt. Marcus Williamson, a communications section chief from the 301st. Extra power and extra Internet lines had to be wired into the computer lab. Along with college classes and e-mail services, soldiers are able to use instant messaging programs, download pictures from home, and even use Webcams to chat with family. The computers also feature a picture of Maupin as the background image to remind soldiers he is still held captive. "These are a dedicated resource to bridge the communication gap," Fontaine said. "Direct communications services provided here will give families and soldiers the ability to share strength, courage, determination and pride. It will keep fathers in touch with daughters, mothers and sons, husbands and wives." Quoting the motto of the National League of POW/MIA Families, "Not Forgotten," Fontaine spoke of Maupin and what the computer lab symbolizes. "The story is told about Matt, that he is a proud soldier, who knows his duty and does not shirk from it. He is loved and missed by everyone who knows him. "Our country remains dedicated to finding Matt. The efforts of this lab are representative of the respect and concern our nation has for finding him," the general said. "The systems are for the exclusive use for soldiers and all bear a picture of Sergeant Maupin as a reminder that he is still out there waiting for us." (Army Sgt. Jason Mikeworth is assigned to the 207th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment.)
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April 8, 2005 |
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Maupin gone year, but not forgotten |
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UNION TWP. - When news broke one year ago that a hometown soldier had been captured in Iraq, this community responded with open arms and constant prayers. Yellow ribbons and pictures of Pfc. Keith Matthew Maupin, a 2001 graduate of Glen Este High School, popped up all over Union Township and Clermont County. Churches held prayer vigils, and the community held support-the-troops celebrations. One year later, the support has not waned. Saturday marks the one-year anniversary of Maupin's capture. "This one boy, he symbolizes every soldier," said Clermont County spokeswoman Kathy Lehr. "He could be your neighbor, could be your son. We've all become a little bit more involved. "It's been refreshing to see the community spirit revived." With a daylong concert and dinner on Saturday that will help send packages to American troops abroad, then a motorcycle ride on Sunday that benefits a scholarship fund at Maupin's alma mater, this weekend begins a slew of events this month. There will also be a fishing tournament at East Fork Lake, a candlelight vigil and a country music concert. The intent is to turn Maupin's absence into something that will make a difference in the lives of other soldiers. That's exactly what his parents, Carolyn and Keith Maupin, have been doing for months at their Yellow Ribbon Support Center near the Eastgate Bigg's. The support center has sent out 2,000 packages to soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan - more than 20 tons of food, snacks, games, books, toiletries and other items. "People still remember Matt," Carolyn Maupin said. E-mail
rforgrave@enquirer.com |
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April 6, 2005 |
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BATAVIA, Ohio -- Right after "How ya doin'?" and before "Have a nice day," people in this southwest Ohio community are likely to ask, "Have you heard anything new about Matt?" Army Reserve Spc. Keith "Matt" Maupin, the only soldier the U.S. Army lists as captured in Iraq, has become part of the social fabric that binds this town of about 2,000 residents. Maupin, 21, has been missing since April 9, 2004, when his fuel truck convoy was ambushed by insurgents west of Baghdad. Yellow ribbons are fixtures in his hometown, fluttering from parking meters on Main Street. Businesses display signs in their windows, such as the one at Batavia Floral Design that reads, "Pray for Matt and all troops." "There's just so much support for the family," said Kathleen Blanchard, whose son was on the Glen Este High School wrestling team with Maupin's brother, Micah, a U.S. Marine. "Everybody's not given up." Blanchard's brother, a plumber who moonlights as an Elvis impersonator, stages occasional benefits for the Maupin family and the Yellow Ribbon Foundation that the soldier's mother, Carolyn Maupin, helped found. On the one-year anniversary of Maupin's disappearance, he'll perform a benefit at the American Legion hall in Mount Carmel. The next day, about 1,000 motorcyclists are expected to pay $10 apiece to take part in a ride to raise money for a scholarship fund in Maupin's name for students from Glen Este. Four employees of Halliburton subsidiary KBR were killed in the April 9 attack, and another U.S. soldier in the convoy was found dead later that month. In January, Halliburton announced that the remains of William Bradley, 50, of Chesterfield, N.H., one of two truck drivers missing since the attack, had been found. Driver Timothy Bell of Mobile, Ala., still is missing. A third civilian, Thomas Hamill of Macon, Miss., was captured but managed to escape in May. Maupin is known to have been captured alive. A week after he disappeared, Arab television network Al-Jazeera released a videotape showing him sitting on the floor surrounded by five masked men holding automatic rifles. Since then, there's been nothing identifiable. A dark, grainy video Al-Jazeera released in June showed a blindfolded man in fatigues, sitting on the ground. Not seen, but explicit in the narrative, was a segment in which he allegedly was shot. U.S. experts examined the tape but called it inconclusive. The Army says it is doing everything within its power to find Maupin. For security reasons, the Army won't discuss exactly what it is doing, said Maj. Elizabeth Robbins, an Army spokeswoman. A three-member Army board of inquiry is to meet today in Alexandria, Va., for a routine annual review of his status, Robbins said. The board's decision is not expected to be announced until next week Ginny Green, who is helping to organize the motorcycle ride, said support for the Maupins comes naturally. "A lot of us have family members who are serving or who expect to be called up," she said. "We know it could have been somebody from any of our families." On the Net: http://www.clermontyellowribbon.com/maupinmain.htm
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April 4, 2005 |
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By Michael A. Lindenberger The (Louisville) Courier-Journal Now she has another wish — that the Army will continue to believe he is alive. On Wednesday, almost exactly a year after Spc. Matt Maupin disappeared, the Army is scheduled to convene a panel to decide whether he should remain classified as a captive or be considered dead. "We don't want him to be forgotten," Carolyn Maupin said. "I am just afraid that if they move on, then what will we say when he shows up alive and we aren't there waiting for him?" Top Army officials said Maupin has not been forgotten. "We continue to look for Spc. Maupin, but we cannot provide any further details about those efforts," said Lt. Col. Pamela Hart, an Army spokeswoman. Still, the law requires the Army to re-examine his case after a year, and a panel of officers will meet in Washington to review evidence linked to Maupin's disappearance. They will decide whether to reclassify him as "deceased, body not recovered." If reclassified, he would join 1,531 other servicemembers who have died in the war in Iraq. Maupin, who joined the Reserve in 2003, was captured April 9, 2004, after a firefight with Iraqi insurgents that killed two other soldiers from his platoon. He was later shown as a hostage in a video broadcast on an Arabic-language news channel. Thousands of well-wishers have written or called his family. In February, when the 724th Transportation Company out of Bartonville, Ill., his Reserve unit, came home, it did so without Maupin. That doesn't mean the Army will give up on him in Wednesday's meeting, said Sgt. Mike Bailey, 49, a member of the unit who said he got to know Maupin fairly well. "I am an old Ranger, and we don't leave a soldier behind," Bailey said. "I don't think the Army will, either." If the Army decides that Maupin is dead, it may be in part because of a second video that was shown on Arab television in June. That video purports to be footage of Maupin's execution, and it shows a uniformed figure with his back to the camera fall into a shallow grave. "It just doesn't look like Matt," Carolyn Maupin said. "In my heart, I just knew it wasn't him. I still believe he is alive and out there somewhere." Rob Lindley, a friend of Maupin's since sixth grade, said he is not surprised Maupin's disappearance has drawn so much attention. "Matt gave a face to the war," Lindley said. "You can see him there in that video, you can empathize with him. He could be anybody's son, anybody's best friend."
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April 4, 2005 |
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The only soldier the U.S. Army lists as captured in Iraq has been promoted to sergeant, his second promotion since he was abducted last year, the Army said Monday. The promotion of reservist Keith M. "Matt" Maupin was effective last Friday, said Major Elizabeth Robbins, an Army spokeswoman at the Pentagon. Maupin was promoted from private first class to specialist after his disappearance. He has been missing since last April 9 when his fuel truck convoy was ambushed by insurgents west of Baghdad. A board with the 724th Transportation Company, Maupin's unit based in Bartonville, Illinois, promoted him. Though the Army does not know where Maupin is, he is presumed to be serving honorably, Robbins said. Maupin received a waiver of a requirement that normally would have required him to have served longer before becoming eligible for a promotion. A message seeking comment was left Monday at the suburban Cincinnati home of Carolyn Maupin, the soldier's mother. A three-member Army board of inquiry is to meet Wednesday in Alexandria, Virginia., for a routine annual review of his status, Robbins said. The Army had said last week that the board would meet this coming Saturday -- the anniversary of Maupin's abduction in Iraq -- but the meeting has been moved up, Robbins said. The board's decision is not expected to be announced until next week, she said. Maupin, 21, is known to have been captured alive. A week after he disappeared, Arab television network Al-Jazeera released a videotape showing him sitting on the floor surrounded by five masked men holding automatic rifles. Since then, there's been nothing identifiable. A dark, grainy video Al-Jazeera released in June showed a blindfolded man in fatigues, sitting on the ground. Al-Jazeera said it did not broadcast a scene from the videotape in which the blindfolded man was shot. U.S. military experts examined the tape but called it inconclusive. Citing security concerns, Army officials won't disclose what they are doing to find him.
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April 4, 2005 |
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Ohio Chapter 2 received this article, dated April 4, 2005, entitled "Missing Soldier's Family Refuses to Give Up," from Ms. Lynn O'Shea, Director of Research, National Alliance of POW/MIA Families, for the Return of America's Missing Servicemen, World War II - Korea - Cold War - Vietnam - Gulf Wars. Ohio Chapter 2 wishes to thank Ms. O'Shea for keeping us informed on the proceedings of our hero, Spc. Matt Maupin. God Bless Spc. Matt Maupin - Please Pray for Matt's Safe Return Home
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mlindenberger@courier-journal.com The Courier-Journal BATAVIA, Ohio -- Each morning before she leaves for work, Carolyn Maupin says a prayer that someone will find or rescue her son Matt, the only American soldier classified as a captive in Iraq. Now she has another wish -- that the Army will continue to believe he is alive. On Wednesday, almost exactly a year after Spc. Matt Maupin disappeared, the Army is scheduled to convene a panel to decide whether he should remain classified as a captive or be considered dead. "We don't want him to be forgotten," Carolyn Maupin said in a recent interview." I am just afraid that if they move on, then what will we say when he shows up alive and we aren't there waiting for him?" Top Army officials said Maupin has not been forgotten. "We continue to look for Spc. Maupin, but we cannot provide any further details about those efforts," said Lt. Col. Pamela Hart, an Army spokeswoman. Still, the law requires the Army to re-examine his case after a year, and a panel of officers will meet in Washington to review evidence linked to Maupin's disappearance. They will decide whether to reclassify him as "deceased, body not recovered." He would join 1,535 other soldiers who have died in the war in Iraq. Shari Lawrence, deputy public affairs officer for the U.S. Army Human Resources Command, said that even if the Army decides Maupin is dead, it remains committed to the search for clues to his fate. "They will still be following any leads they might have," she said. "Our (intelligence) guys are doing a lot of things to still look for him." Maupin, who joined the Reserve in 2003 after running out of money for college, is the only U.S. soldier in Iraq who is unaccounted for. He was captured last year on April 9 after a fierce firefight with Iraqi insurgents that killed two other soldiers from his platoon. He was later shown as a hostage in a video initially broadcast on an Arabic-language news channel. Since then, thousands of well-wishers have written or called his family. In February, when the 724th Transportation Company out of Bartonville, Ill., his Reserve unit, came home, it did so without Maupin. That doesn't mean the Army will give up on him in Wednesday's meeting, said Sgt. Mike Bailey, 49, a member of the unit who said he got to know Maupin fairly well. "I am an old Ranger, and we don't leave a soldier behind," Bailey said. "I don't think the Army will, either." 'I won't give up on my son'If the Army decides that Maupin is dead, it may be in part because of a second video that was shown on Arab television in June. That video purports to be footage of Maupin's execution, and it shows a uniformed figure with his back to the camera fall into a shallow grave. Matt's parents said they immediately thought the grainy and poorly lit video was fake. "It just doesn't look like Matt," Carolyn Maupin said. "In my heart, I just knew it wasn't him. I still believe he is alive and out there somewhere." Bailey said he also is convinced the video is not the young man he got to know in Iraq. "No, it don't (look like Matt)," Bailey said. "He was a very muscular person and looks very different." Two of Maupin's friends, Brian Parnes and Rob Lindley, said video or no video, the Army should keep looking for their buddy. Lindley said the figure in the video looks a lot like Maupin. "But unless they prove it to me, I am just going to believe he's alive," he said. "If he's out there somewhere in some sandbox or hole and we forget him -- well, I am not going to do that." Parnes, who like Lindley has been friends with Maupin since sixth grade, said he thinks the video is so inconclusive that the Army would have to keep his status unchanged. Maupin's mother said it would take much more than the Army's word to convince her to give up hope that he will return. "Until they can show me his body, and prove to me it is him, I won't give up on my son," Carolyn Maupin said. "I am not going to simply accept a line on a piece of paper that says he is gone. They have to prove it to me." 'Something wasn't right'Bailey, a former member of the Fort Campbell-based 101st Airborne Division, said he woke early on the morning of April 9 with a feeling that something was wrong. "I was standing outside my trailer with a cup of coffee in my hand, watching the boys from Matt's platoon head to the motor pool," Bailey said. "But I had a bad, hard feeling -- I knew something wasn't right." Bailey said both men in his platoon who would be killed later also stopped to say good morning. "Then, here comes Matt, with his big smile on his face. I said, 'You ready for this?' He just looked back and said, 'I guess so, Sgt. Bailey.' I told him, 'Stay alert and watch yourself out there today.' " "Matt stuck out," Bailey said. "It's hard to put it all in words. But he really stuck out. He was physically fit, and he listened to what us old guys had to say." Maupin's father said Matt wrote to say he didn't like being in Iraq -- it was too hot and too far from home. But he was determined to serve admirably, Keith Maupin recalled. "He was there to do a job, and he was going to do it," Keith Maupin said. What happenedBailey said the orders for the day weren't unusual -- both Maupin's platoon and his own were to escort a convoy of civilian contractors along a road used as a supply line. Maupin's platoon moved out about 7 a.m., and Bailey was readying to go with his own platoon on a second escort mission. But before Bailey left, he heard over the radio that Maupin's unit had been ordered to change routes. That's when he knew something was wrong. "You can ask the four men standing next to me at the time. I radioed the lieutenant and said, 'Don't go, (lieutenant). Something isn't right,' " Bailey said. Soon after, Bailey's platoon was told to stay put, he said, convincing the men standing near him that something had gone wrong. Later he learned that Maupin's platoon had "encountered bad resistance." They were told one soldier, Spc. Gregory Goodrich, was killed, and that others were missing, he said. The toll would grow to two dead soldiers when Sgt. Elmer Krause's body was found shortly afterward. In addition, six civilian employees of KBR, a Halliburton subsidiary, were killed and two were captured. One of those captured, 43-year-old truck driver Thomas Hamill of Mississippi, escaped a month later and was found by U.S. troops. The other, Tim Bell, is still missing, a company spokeswoman said. A week later, on April 16, the first videotape was aired. Back home, Lindley and Parnes saw it. Maupin "looked like he always does when he was in trouble. He was definitely scared but at the same time he didn't want to show anything," Lindley said. 'I don't want to just manage'Carolyn Maupin said her son's decision to join the military seemed sudden. He had transferred to a community college after a year at the main University of Cincinnati campus, and he was doing well, she said. But one day he came home and said he had joined the Army Reserve. "I was very concerned, especially with everything that was going on," she said. "But he said he did it to earn some money for college. I told him, 'Matt, we can manage college without this.' He looked at me and said, 'Mom, I don't want to just manage.' " Keith Maupin, a Marine Corps veteran, said his son did not discuss his decision with him, either. Maupin's younger brother, Micah, would later join the Marines, and the 18-year-old is stationed in California. 'Are we doing enough?'Lindley said he is not surprised Maupin's disappearance has drawn so much attention and so many well-wishers. "Matt gave a face to the war," he said. "You can see him there in that video, you can empathize with him. He could be anybody's son, anybody's best friend." Carolyn Maupin said she's going to keep praying for her son's return, even if the Army decides he is dead. In the meantime, she said, she hopes that everything possible is being done to find him. "We are over here, and he is over there," she said. "I can't help but ask myself, 'Is what we are doing enough? Is it ever going to be enough for a parent, or parents, whose son is missing?' " |
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February 23, 2005 |
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Spc. Matt Maupin's military company is back on U.S. soil without the Batavia soldier, considered "captured" since April 2004. The 724th Transportation Company's jet landed at Volk Field in Wisconsin around 11:00 a.m. EST Wednesday. A small crowd of family members was there to greet the soldiers, returning from the hot desert to the snow-covered Wisconsin land. The soldiers won't be able to go home until Friday. They must first be demobilized at the Fort McCoy base in Wisconsin. Keith and Carolyn Maupin, Matt's parents, plan to arrive Wednesday afternoon ahead of a Friday homecoming celebration. They say they know it is going to be a very difficult time for them not to see Matt arriving back with his unit, but they want to be there to tell his fellow comrades its okay and welcome home. "When I first heard when they're coming back, I said we need to go there," said Carolyn Maupin on Tuesday. "We need to go there because I felt it in my heart and I needed to go there for Matt," she said. April 9th will be the one-year mark since Matt's convoy came under attack just outside of Baghdad. He's been considered captured ever since, the only U.S. military member with that classification. "You know it's easier to say things before they become to be reality. Now it's become reality, but I'm not going to give up. They deserve to come home. They've done their duty and now they just need to be thanked and be happy they can be with their family they haven't seen for year. So I'm glad for them," said Carolyn Maupin. "I know Matt won't be there but I want to make sure these guys know how we feel. We don't blame anybody. We don't want to blame anyone for what happened to Matt because it could have been any of those guys as well but we want them to enjoy their time," said Matt's dad Keith. The Maupins say their son's unit lived by the warrior ethos which includes the motto 'we will never leave a fallen comrade.' "I do know they don't like leaving a fallen comrade. So its going to be hard for them. I don't know how they're going to deal with that. It's not only myself but they're going to feel that way too," said Carolyn Maupin. Maupin is one of three 724th members not returning home. The other two were killed in combat. Pfc. Jeremy Church, a member of the 724th, will receive a silver star for his actions in the attack on Maupin's convoy. Church drove his commander out of the kill zone during the attack, then went back to help others. Pfc. Church is the only army reservist to receive such a high honor. Another soldier in Matt's unit who was wounded in the convoy attack has been home for a while. The welcome home party, which the Maupins will attend, will be on Friday. 9News will have a live crew in Wisconsin delivering comprehensive coverage during the next few days.
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What Happened To Matt Maupin?
A HOMETOWN WAITS FOR
THE ONLY AMERICAN G.I. UNACCOUNTED FOR IN THE WAR, SNATCHED
BY INSURGENTS 10 MONTHS AGO
One member of the 160-strong company, however, will be conspicuously absent. He is Keith (Matt) Maupin, the only American soldier who is unaccounted for in Iraq. Ten months ago, insurgents ambushed a convoy guarded by the 724th and took Private First Class Maupin, then 20, captive. There have been conflicting reports on his fate. He was seen alive on one videotape, reported killed on another. Without proof of his death, the Army presumes he is still alive. His family fervently prays that is so. The months have ticked by, and Maupin has been promoted to the rank of specialist and turned 21. While most of the country may have forgotten about him since news of his capture made headlines and his bewildered face under a floppy hat was flashed across America's television screens, his hometown has not. Because no one in Batavia, a sleepy village of 1,600 on the eastern fringe of Cincinnati, Ohio, knows where Matt Maupin is, he is everywhere. SPC MATT MAUPIN--OUR PRAYERS ARE WITH YOU AND YOURS, the big electric sign at Jeff Wyler Auto Mall flashes once a minute. At the top of every hour, the local oldies radio station, WGRR, airs a booming jingle: "Joining you in all our prayers for Matt Maupin." Incongruous messages dot the strip malls along busy Route 32, which bisects Clermont County. PRAY FOR MATT MAUPIN AND FAMILY LARGE CHEESE $5.99, says the sign outside Snappy Tomato Pizza. As you get closer to the Maupin home, several miles west of Batavia, his last name vanishes. OUR PRAYERS ARE WITH MATT, says the sign at Uncle Bob's Self Storage at the end of Schoolhouse Road, where he grew up. THINKING OF MATT, says the one at Willowville Elementary School, which he attended. Glen Este High School, from which Maupin graduated in 2001, has become a shrine of hope. Hundreds of red, white and blue plastic cups are stuck into chain-link fencing, spelling out his name and framing his picture. The winter weather has taken a toll on the yellow ribbons in town, but residents say replacements will come with the spring, along with nature's yellow displays of daffodils and forsythia. "People have a tendency to forget," concedes Keith Maupin, Matt's father. "We're not going to let that happen." The Maupins are living the Iraq war in a way unlike any other U.S. family, and their town is feeling it unlike any other place. More than 10,000 U.S. troops have been wounded since the invasion of Iraq nearly two years ago. Close to 1,500 have died. But Matt Maupin falls into a category of one: he is the sole U.S. soldier fighting in Iraq who is unaccounted for. "Every day it's, Where is my son? Is he alive? Is he dead? What's happening?" his mother Carolyn says in a voice skating along the edge of torment. "That fear of the unknown is one of the worst things you can ever go through." The Maupins' spirits have been buoyed by visits and calls from President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. But their heartache is growing. They are in a special kind of pain because of the special kind of war their son is fighting. He is not "missing in action"; rather, because a group claims to have seized him, he is considered "captured." Yet he is not a "prisoner of war" because no one at the Pentagon has the faintest idea what that group--the "Persistent Power Against the Enemies of God and the Prophet"--is. Consequently, there can be no talk of the Geneva convention with his captors or of visits from the Red Cross to make sure he is being well treated or is even alive. He has simply been swallowed by some element of the hydra-headed insurgency--a missing man in the hands of a ghostly enemy. Occasionally, the constant flow of Iraqi prisoners through U.S.-run prisons in Iraq yields leads about Maupin's whereabouts. According to U.S. military officers in Iraq, an Iraqi detainee recently led U.S. forces to the shallow grave of William Bradley, a civilian killed in the assault on Maupin's convoy. The detainee also fingered a gang in his village of Abu Ghraib, west of Baghdad, as the men involved in the attack in which Maupin went missing. In the first week of January, U.S. and Iraqi special forces raided the village, seized eight suspects--one of whom led to 20 more--and found U.S. uniforms, weapons and a water cooler. If evidence gathered in the raid or interrogations of the suspects has shed light on Maupin's fate, the U.S. military is not yet prepared to say so. Matt Maupin, born while Ronald Reagan was president, is partial to Superman, Star Wars and teriyaki beef jerky. He grew up in a trim ranch house with a basketball hoop next to the driveway and his prized red 1998 Mustang in the garage. "You can pick out most of the guys who go into the military because they walk with a certain attitude," says Nick Ayers, who played with Maupin on their high school football team, the Trojans. "But Matt was really laid-back." That quietness was infused with a drive that pushed him onto the team, as a second-string receiver and defensive back, as well as the honor roll. "He was a hardworking kid who didn't get to play as much as he wanted to, but he didn't let that deter him," says coach Zak Taylor. "We'd finish about 3:45 every day, and he'd always stay late," working out in the weight room. Younger brother Micah, 19, says Matt has always preferred action to words. "Matt works hard and does the best he can. A lot of people just yell, yell, yell, but Matt isn't like that. It's more of a lead-by-example thing with him." Despite his square-jawed handsomeness and his pony car, friends say, Matt was shy with girls. A rare dinner date would be at the Outback Steakhouse. After high school, Maupin toyed with the idea of enlisting in the military but instead enrolled at the University of Cincinnati, studying aerospace engineering before switching to nutritional science. He also worked at the local Sam's Club warehouse store, stocking shelves. "He still works here," manager Mitch Cohen says. "He's just on a military leave of absence, and his job will be here for him when he returns." There's a tabletop display about Maupin at the front of the store, one of several in the area. Cohen, who has worked in New York and Florida, says he has never witnessed the kind of community resoluteness that has gathered the Maupins in a protective embrace. "The people here," he says, "just care a lot more than in any other place I've lived. In August 2002, Maupin's mother recalls, "he just came to me in my bedroom one day and said, 'Mom, I joined the Army Reserve today.' And I said, 'Oh, Matt, you didn't. Why did you do it, especially at this time?' He was old enough so there wasn't anything I could do." Matt told her he signed up to earn money for school. Carolyn, 57, said they could have managed college without his enlisting. "I don't want to manage, Mom," he told her. "I want to get it done." He soon headed off to basic training at Fort Jackson, S.C. "Neither Carol nor I wanted him to join the military," says Keith, 54, who is divorced from Matt's mother. "I told him, 'Matt, you can do what you want to do, but there's a war going on over there, and I don't care if you're in the reserves or not, you could get activated.'" At that time, U.S. forces were still fighting in Afghanistan, and rumbles of war in Iraq were growing louder. Maupin's brother Micah followed him into the service a year later, joining the active-duty Marines. Keith had served in the Marines for four years in the early 1970s. Maupin arrived in Iraq last February. Most of his unit was based near Baghdad, attached to various support commands. One of its key missions was to protect the civilian convoys that bring everything from beans to bullets to U.S. forces scattered around Iraq. Because of their vulnerability, the convoys are key targets for insurgents. In the three letters Maupin, who had never traveled by plane before enlisting, wrote his mother, homesickness came through. "Hey Mom--I wouldn't come here on a bet--this place sucks," he wrote. ("He never used that word before," Carolyn says.) "I just want to come back to America." There were also a couple of 2 a.m., Batavia time, phone calls. "He always said, 'I love you,' at the end," she recalls, blinking back tears. Those remain his last words to her, she says, in their final phone conversation about 10 days before he was captured. Maupin's mission last April 9, Good Friday, was to ride shotgun on a fuel tanker that was part of a mile-long convoy. Under the protection of part of the 724th, civilian contractors were hauling diesel fuel in 17 tanker trucks across 60 miles from the U.S. military's main logistics base at Camp Anaconda in Balad to Baghdad International Airport. Just west of Baghdad at about 10:30 a.m., the convoy came under sudden attack on the six-lane Abu Ghraib Expressway. "We're taking fire in the rear!" radioed a truck driver. Within seconds, the entire convoy was under a barrage from an estimated 150 insurgents lurking in roadside shacks. Bullets, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars peppered the vehicles. Fuel, pouring from punctured tankers, turned the highway as slick as ice. A soldier behind Maupin's tanker saw it explode, swerve off the highway and plunge into a ditch. "They were hammering the daylights out of us," says Thomas Hamill, the civilian convoy commander. "I believe they were planning on taking everybody in that convoy out." While the insurgents failed in that goal, they did kill at least six Americans among the roughly 50 in the convoy. The bodies of four civilians and two soldiers from the 724th, Specialist Gregory Goodrich and Sergeant Elmer Krause, have been recovered. Hamill was taken prisoner and escaped after a month. One of the authors of Escape in Iraq, he says he knows very little about his captors and nothing of Maupin's fate. Another civilian, Timothy Bell, 45, of Mobile, Ala., remains missing. Carolyn saw news of the attack on television at the school district's bus depot, where she is a dispatcher. "When I saw the attack on the convoy on TV at work, I knew it was Matt's," she says. On Easter Sunday, an Army major hand-delivered letters to Maupin's parents informing them that Matt was missing. The next day, the Army stormed Carolyn's home, where Matt had lived before shipping out. "There must have been 20 of them," Keith says. "There was a stress officer, a chaplain, a casualty-assistance officer." Neighbors plied the Maupins with casseroles, pies and deli trays--and an extra refrigerator to hold it all. The Marines sent Micah home temporarily from his base in Pensacola, Fla., and agreed not to send him overseas until his brother's case is resolved. A week after Maupin disappeared, he surfaced on a video shown on al-Jazeera, the Qatari satellite channel. It showed him alive, surrounded by five gunmen masked in kaffiyehs. "My name is Keith Matthew Maupin," he said into the camera. "I am a soldier from the 1st Division." Wearing his uniform and boonie hat, Maupin appeared unharmed but dazed. "He didn't look hurt, but he was nibbling a little on his lip, which I've never seen him do before," Carolyn remembers. "I was impressed that the captors didn't have their guns pointing at him." They said on the tape that he might be swapped for insurgents held by the Americans. U.S. officials quickly rejected any such deals and pledged to do everything possible to rescue Maupin. On June 28, a second video surfaced on al-Jazeera. Dark and grainy, it showed a blindfolded man sitting before a hole in the ground. An off-camera voice speaking in Arabic identified him as Maupin. While the station didn't broadcast the shooting, the next scene showed him being shot in the back of the head. According to the voice-over, he had been executed because the U.S. had not changed its Iraq policy. Maupin's parents studied still photographs the Army made off the video but elected not to watch the tape itself. The clearest photo "showed a jawline, but it was really fuzzy," Keith says. "Since I've seen that video, I've looked at a lot of jaws, and there's a lot out there that look like Matt's." When the Army told Carolyn that her son might be dead, "I wasn't crying like a mother should be crying," she says. "I had to make myself cry because inside I didn't feel like it was Matt." After further investigation, the Army said the video was inconclusive and that it may have shown bullets being fired into a dummy. So Maupin remains listed as "captured," with his bank account growing with the $2,400 monthly deposit of his salary. "Matt's going to like that," his father says. "He said it's all tax free." Clermibt County was home to Ulysses S. Grant. WE TAKE PRIDE IN OUR PEOPLE, says the plaque on the county courthouse. PERHAPS THIS IS WHY WE FLY OUR FLAGS SO HIGH. Overwhelmingly conservative and religious, the county's 186,000 residents, most of them white, tend to believe what their President tells them. They agree with him that the Iraq war had to be fought and has to be won. "I think we need to be there," Keith says. Maupin's capture hasn't blunted the county's support for President Bush: he took 71% of the vote in November, up four points from his 2000 showing. Of course, not everyone salutes the war. "The whole community is aching over this," says Don Rucknagel, a retired University of Cincinnati professor. "But this war is much bigger than this young man. We're bogged down in another quagmire." That's a minority view, though. The soldiers manning the recruiting station where Maupin enlisted say his plight hasn't hurt their efforts. "His name comes up a lot, but people don't blame the military for what happened," says Staff Sergeant Jeff Herrold. "And there are still people here brave enough to serve." For volunteers drawn in by the Maupins' trials, the Yellow Ribbon Support Center, a nonprofit group Matt's parents started last August, is headquarters. It's housed in a couple of donated storefronts tucked into the back of a shopping center. The center has shipped about 2,000 boxes--an estimated 20 tons--of donated candy and cookies, coffee and hot chocolate, games, toothbrushes, underwear and toiletries, to U.S. troops, largely in Iraq. Each box also contains a plastic bag with 10 small pin-on badges containing a photo of Maupin and a slip of paper: "These are pictures of our captured soldier Spc. Keith 'Matt' Maupin," it says. "Please help us find him ... The Maupin Family." Sara Chilewski and Emily Large, both 12, are at the center on a cold Saturday afternoon, punching holes into pictures of Maupin and threading bits of yellow ribbon through them. They've volunteered here before and think it's more important than doing homework or shopping at Eastgate Mall. They believe what they're doing, in some small way, might contribute to Maupin's coming home. "I really want to help him," Large says, "because I know how much the soldiers are doing for our country." Dave Foley, 55, a Vietnam Navy veteran, is amazed at the support the girls and others are offering the troops. "We never got any recognition," he says as he slips photos of Maupin into the plastic badges. "For our troops over there to know they have support in the U.S. is a great boost for morale." The center's walls are filled with posters and T shirts bearing Maupin's picture. While some parents might not want their lost child staring at them during most of their waking hours, Keith says it soothes him. "Matt is close when I'm here," he says, "because he's everywhere." Keith, who gave up his construction job in July, relies on relatives for his minimal needs. Working full time at the center has given him a mission. It is tough being the father of the nation's only missing soldier, he says. "You don't know what the military is supposed to be doing," he says. "And we don't know what we're supposed to be doing, other than waiting for them to find Matt." The family has received more than 15,000 letters of support, some addressed simply to "The family of the soldier captured in Iraq, Batavia, Ohio." Other messages have been posted on the center's website (www. yellow ribbon support center. com). Dozens of U.S. troops have responded to the packages. They thank the center for making their stay in Iraq a little easier and pledge to do what they can to bring Maupin home. "Recovering missing Americans is something all service members hold sacred, partly because it motivates us to do our job without worrying whether or not our country will come get us if something should happen: We know they will," a Marine recently wrote from Iraq. "We will continue to fight here, and keep looking for your son." A Thanksgiving Day note from the Army operations center at the Pentagon--signed by 20 soldiers--said they pray daily for Maupin's safe return. But Keith and Carolyn are growing increasingly frustrated with the Army. "They call and tell us there's no update," Keith says. "We're not getting bummed out. We're actually getting pissed." Every so often Carolyn gets the urge to hunt for her son herself. "But then I realize that's just the anger of a parent," she says. "They tell me Iraq is as big as California. Where would I start looking?" Senior U.S. military officers in Washington and Iraq share the family's frustration. "We keep following up every lead we can," an Army colonel familiar with the search says. "But given the kind of enemy we're dealing with here, we've got to keep our hopes in check." Carolyn and Keith have met with Bush four times, all during the President's frequent campaign trips to the crucial electoral state of Ohio last year. The Army casualty-assistance officer assigned to the Maupin family took Keith to the barbershop to trim his long beard--and to Sears to buy a suit--for his first meeting with the Commander in Chief; Keith has vowed not to tame his beard until his son is found. "He really didn't know much either," Keith says of the President. "But he said, 'They're looking for him, they'll get him, and they'll bring him home.'" Bush's concern has impressed the Maupins. "He talks from the heart," Keith says, "and I believe he's got a lot of sincerity and conviction in him." Carolyn says, "He found the time to come out here and talk to us, and that's a great thing for a President to do. He says they're doing all they can, but, of course, to a parent, that's never enough." Keith chokes up when asked how he copes with the unrelenting state of not knowing. "Until Matt walks off the plane--or they carry him off--we will believe and have faith that Matt is alive," he says. Some days are tougher than others. "I'm almost certain that it's a test from God and that God is not going give you more than you can bear," he says. "But it's getting pretty heavy." He takes solace in the simple things. "Each time when it seems to be getting unbearable, something happens to lift the weight off," he says. "We've had people tell us they've had dreams in which Matt is O.K., and it's weird, but that really helps." "I pray every day before I leave here," Carolyn says in her living room. "I go to Matt's picture, and I put my hand up to him, and I always ask God for the courage and strength to get through the day." She too has her tougher days, and sometimes that tactile prayer isn't adequate. "So sometimes I lay on the bed and cry for a little bit before I go to work," she says. Whenever she falters, she hears Matt's voice. "I have to keep on going because Matt would say, 'Mom, what are you doing?'" she says with a wan smile. "I can hear him now." Like his mother, Micah, who is now based at California's Miramar Air Station, where he repairs helicopters, sometimes wishes he could head to Iraq to look for his brother: "I'm not special operations. It's not like I could go out and find him myself, but I would if I could." Micah faced a dilemma once his brother was captured and his parents asked him to accept the Marines' offer to stay close to home. "If he wants to go to Iraq after this, that's fine," his mother says. "But I don't need two sons over there under these conditions." Says Micah: "It was not an easy call. I really feel I should be doing my part for the country by going over there," to Iraq, Afghanistan or wherever the corps needs him. "I understand the way my mom and dad feel, but I'm not really cool with it," Micah says. His parents are planning to head to that party welcoming the 724th home later this month. "They are Matt's family too," Carolyn says. Keith wants to make sure the returning soldiers don't feel guilty that they have come home without retrieving his son. "That's not their job," he says. The service has told the Maupins that convoy protection has been beefed up in the wake of the attack on their son's convoy. "It's a shame it had to happen this way, but I'm glad the changes have been made," Carolyn says. "But what about Matt? He's still out there."
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January 17, 2005 |
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November 9, 2004 |
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They've never talked publicly about the day their son was taken hostage in Iraq, but now
they're ready to break the silence. The mother and father of captured Army Specialist Matt Maupin spoke candidly about their missing son. Tuesday marked seven months since Carolyn and Keith Maupin's son was captured when his convoy came under attack in Iraq. 9News reporter Shannon Kettler sat down with Matt Maupin's parents as they shared what life has been like for them since their son was taken hostage. "Its tough," said Keith Maupin, "I don't know what else to say. You do one day at a time and try to get by." Seven months ago Carolyn Maupin says she was a homemaker with four kids trying to get by when her life suddenly turned upside down. She now talks about life without her son, the president, and the fear of the unknown. It's when night falls, at the end of the day, Carolyn Maupin listens to a song sent by her a stranger about her missing son. "I'll pray you home -- wherever you may be," goes the lyrics to the song. Her mind drifts back to when she last saw her son. "When he left he was so proud, so proud of what he was going to do and he's just a very strong individual -- very, very strong -- and that's what I'm counting on to stay strong," said Maupin. Born on July 13, 1983, Keith Matthew Maupin was the third oldest sibling who grew up excelling in sports and in school. "If he would get a 'B.' he would never like that because he always wanted the 'A's' in school," said Maupin. After graduation Matt Maupin enrolled at UC's Clermont College. His major was nutritional science. He joined the military to help pay for college. "It turns out after he left, I get the letter to say he was on the Dean's list," said Carolyn Maupin. "He had 4 A's and a B and he doesn't even know that yet." The Maupins would spend Christmas of 2003 together before Matt would leave to Fort McCoy. They said their goodbyes at the airport. "Then I had to watch him walk down," said Carolyn Maupin as she took a deep breath. "Who would have known that would be the last time I would waive at him?" The next time Carolyn Maupin would see her son would be like the rest of American -- on television. It was on Friday, April 9 that Matt's convoy came under attack by a rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire near Baghdad. Carolyn Maupin also recalls on that Friday that, "I told a bus driver, I said I don't feel comfortable today. There is something not right." "And the convoy was on the TV and I went to myself 'No, that isn't Matt's, but I kind of knew it was," said Maupin. "I just didn't want to face it, but I kind of knew it was Matt's." A week later the Al-Jazeera television network broadcast a videotape showing Matt on the floor, surrounded by masked men holding rifles. "I'm Keith Matthew Maupin," said the soldier in the video. "It was a scary day to look at that, but to see Matt, he didn't seem to be frightened," said Carolyn Maupin. The last seven months have now been a waiting game. There has been little information available since Al-Jazeerah aired the videotape. "I don't know if its the fear of the unknown, because I figured if he's captured he don't have to worry about a car bombing and they're not shooting at him," said Keith Maupin, his father. "All he has to worry about is staying alive." "I usually -- when I get up right before I leave to go to work -- I go to his picture and I put my hand up and I pray for him every morning to start my day," said his mother, Carolyn Maupin, "to give him courage and strength for what he may have to do -- and for myself." In late August Carolyn Maupin went back to her job at the Clermont County bus garage. Every day she passes the fence that the community has dedicated to Matt's memory -- and for his return. "The word I usually look at is "Believe" when I go through there, because that reminds me to believe that one day it is going to be a joyful day and that helps me," said Maupin. Support has also come from the president. "He tells me he's praying for us and praying for Matt, and they're doing everything they can to find him," said Carolyn Maupin, "and I believe that." When asked how long is she prepared to wait for her son's return, Carolyn Maupin replied, "I think, myself at this moment, as long as it takes because I'm not going to give up." "Even on my bracelet that I have, I picked out with one of the charms that says 'Never give up' and I look at that every now and then when I start thinking other things," said Maupin, "and I think 'No, I'm not going to give up,' and I'm going to hold onto my faith in God and hold onto that, and it helps get through the day." 9News also asked Matt's father, Keith Maupin, about what's being done at home to help find his son. He told 9News about the one item he is keeping on hold that he says his son is looking forward to seeing when he returns home. "Just waiting for Matt to come back," said Keith Maupin, "when he comes back he'll have a car to drive." Inside the garage at the Maupin's home sits a shiny, red Ford Mustang. His son Matt bought it with his own money just before being deployed to Iraq. "He would always ask about the car, Pheebie his dog, and the cat -- in that order -- and then how everyone else is doing, which is okay," said Keith Maupin. "We told him his car is in good shape and its in my garage." The Maupins get through each day at the Yellow Ribbon Support Center in Union Township. Pictures of Matt are packaged there and sent to soldiers in Iraq with a request. It says, "Hi, these are pictures of our captured soldier Spc. Keith Matt Maupin. Please help us find him. Our prayers are with you." The Maupins are also encouraged by the outpouring of support from the community. "When I go down any street, I notice every yellow ribbon and I think how great it is they have remembered not only Matt, but all of them," said Carolyn Maupin, "and each time I see them I say a prayer and it makes me feel good." What makes Keith Maupin feel good is taking care of his son's car -- and the thought of one day seeing him back behind the wheel. "It'll be here when he gets here." On Wednesday morning Matt's parents will attend the dedication of a new exhibit at the Pentagon in the Washington, D.C. area. The exhibit will honor the service and sacrifice of American soldiers, and Matt Maupin is included in the exhibit.
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November 4, 2004 |
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November 4, 2004 |
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Carolyn Maupin prays that out of sight doesn’t mean out of mind for her soldier son, taken hostage in Iraq this spring. Despite rumors that Spc. Keith “Matt” Maupin might have been shot to death by insurgents, the Army assures the Batavia, Ohio, family that troops in Iraq continue their search for the captured 20-year-old truck driver and Army Reservist. Keith Maupin believes his son was not executed. “My son is alive. I just know it.” Spc. Maupin, with the 724th Transportation Company, disappeared April 9 after an attack on his fuel convoy. On June 29, hours after U.S. officials turned over sovereignty to the interim Iraqi government, al-Jazeera reported that Maupin had been shot in the head. The station did not broadcast a video it said it had showing the death. According to an Associated Press story in June, the Arab television network aired a video showing a blindfolded man sitting on the ground and identified as Maupin by a statement issued with the footage. Al-Jazeera said that in the next scene, gunmen shoot the man in the back of the head, in front of a hole dug in the ground. U.S. military officials and Maupin’s father have seen still photographs taken from that video and cannot confirm the man shown being shot is Maupin. Maj. Willie Harris, a spokesman for the Army’s Reserve 88th Regional Readiness Command, the transportation company’s parent command in Fort Snelling, Minn., said the photographs he saw were of poor quality and the hostage’s face was not visible. “I did see still pictures of the alleged shooting, but the man was not discernible in the photos. It appeared to be a male with a blindfold kneeling down and he was seen from the back. I could not see his face.” The video footage was grainy and the hostage’s face was not identifiable, according to Jihad Ballout, an al-Jazeera spokesman. “It was really obscure and we could not identify the person in the video,” he said from the station’s headquarters in Doha, Qatar. Army officials won’t discuss the search for Maupin, who on April 23 was officially classified as captured. “We don’t want to do anything or say anything … that may hinder any type of investigation or send the wrong messages to anyone who has him,” Harris said. The lack of communication by Maupin’s hostage-takers might be by design, said Chris Hellman military policy analyst at the Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation in Washington. “If they know the U.S. policy is to not negotiate at all with hostage-takers, why do they take hostages? To sow fear and uncertainty in their adversary,” Hellman said. “Knowing the status of a person, be it dead or alive, is more reassuring to colleagues than not knowing. If your enemy is capable of disappearing you at their convenience and doing with you want they want, and leaving others guessing, wouldn’t that be unsettling to you? “You don’t sleep and you spend a lot of time looking over your shoulder,” he said. And to some degree, hostage-taking in Iraq “has become a business,” said Allen Keiswetter, a scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington, and former deputy assistant deputy secretary at the State Department for Near East Affairs in 2000 and 2001. “Some people who take hostages contract them out to other organizations for money. They may have sold him for some reward to another organization,” said Keiswetter, who is not familiar with the specifics of Maupin case and was speaking generally. Updates about their son trickle into the homes of Spc. Maupin’s parents, a dearth of information that now leaves the family to rely on hope and prayers. “There really isn’t anything new, and there hasn’t been for a while now,” Carolyn Maupin, 57, said. “He is still listed ‘captured, whereabouts unknown’ and all I know is that they are looking. [Army officials] guarantee me they are looking, but to what depth, I don’t know. “They are looking, I honestly do believe that. I feel that.” Keith Maupin said his days are marked “by highs and lows.” “The lows are when I think he’d been shot. And sometimes visits from Army officials. Their visits, with no news, [are] like a roller coaster.” The Maupins say what used to be near-daily visits from a casualty assistance officer in April and then in June, when reports of the videotape surface, have become sporadic visits or phone calls on no set schedule in which officials simply say they still are looking. “They’re looking for him. Plain and simple,” Keith Maupin, 54, said. The specialist’s younger brother, Kent, is a Marine lance corporal who is not deployed. He has two older half-siblings, Leann and Steve Spencer. In part to cope with grief, Keith Maupin runs the family’s support center that sells ribbon-shaped magnets in support of the troops for a “suggested $5 donation.” Proceeds go to buy and ship care packages to deployed troops. Troops can e-mail wish list to K_maupin@yahoo.com. Keith Maupin, himself a former Marine, did not try to talk his sons out of military life. “I never talked to the boys about it. I didn’t try to discourage it. I taught them to make their own decisions.” His son’s role in Iraq makes him proud. Now, if only they’d bring him home. “In my heart, he’s alive, and
wondering why they haven’t come and got him yet.
That’s what I think. They need, have to, bring him
home.”
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August 10, 2004 |
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Video is 'inconclusive' Military says tape too dark, grainy to tell if Maupin is victim Enquirer staff writer UNION TWP. - A video that aired on Arab television outlets in late June purporting to show the execution of local soldier Spc. Keith Matthew Maupin cannot be verified, according to military officials who announced Monday that a military analysis of the video is now complete. Maj. Mark Magalski, casualty assistance officer for the Maupin family, said that even after repeated analyses, Department of Defense investigators were unable to determine from the dark, grainy video whether Maupin was shown being executed on the video - or even whether a killing actually occurred. "There's nothing in the video that lends you to think it was Matt Maupin," Magalski said Monday, four months after Maupin's convoy was attacked by rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire near Baghdad. "The video is totally inconclusive because it's just too dark and grainy." Standing in front of a Bush-Cheney campaign sign and saying they have the utmost confidence in the Bush administration's and the military's efforts to locate their son, the 21-year-old soldier's parents, Keith and Carolyn Maupin, read statements to the press corps gathered in Carolyn Maupin's front yard on Monday to mark their son's fourth month in captivity. Carolyn Maupin addressed her son directly and told him not to worry about his family back home. "Matt, your family is doing just fine," Carolyn Maupin said. "We are keeping busy and trying to return to as normal of a schedule as we can. We are so proud of you. You should see the thousands of yellow ribbons and candles that are burning in support of you and our soldiers. "You are not and will not be forgotten. Matt, you are our hero." Keith Maupin said the family continues to pray for Maupin and all troops until they are returned safely. "Although we have not heard of any current news since Matt's April 9 capture, we have not and will not give up hope for Matt's safe return," Keith Maupin said. "We are extremely proud of our son and love him very much. We know that he will return with honor someday." Maupin's official status remains "captured," as it has been since April 16 when a now-famous video of him surrounded by masked, gun-toting captors aired on television stations across the world. Magalski said a number of factors contributed to Department of Defense analysts being unable to confirm the validity of the video. The figure in the video appeared hooded and had his back to the camera, Magalski said. The video was dark and grainy, apparently shot at night. And the voices on the video were only of the insurgents announcing an execution, not of the video's subject speaking. "And lastly but most importantly, there's been no body associated with this," Magalski said. "Usually when something like this happens, a body is found in a place where the military can easily find it. That's what these terrorists have done in the past. And normally they're pretty accurate when they say they executed someone." Magalski added the release of the video on June 28
coincided with the handover of power to an interim Iraqi
government, and the video could have been filmed earlier and
given to media outlets to overshadow the news of the
handover. |
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July 29, 2004 |
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The Ohio family of captured
Army Reserve Spc. Keith Maupin prayed yesterday that news of his
execution was untrue. |
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July 2, 2004 |
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Bush phones to bolster Maupins President pledges 'unwavering support' for soldier's family President Bush spoke to the family of Spc. Keith "Matt" Maupin by phone Wednesday, assuring them once again that everything possible would be done to bring the 20-year-old Army reservist home alive, an Army spokesman said Thursday. Bush's phone call came only a few hours after Maupin's parents, Carolyn and Keith Maupin, met privately with Pentagon officials for a briefing on efforts to find and rescue Maupin, who was captured April 9 while driving a truck in a fuel convoy that was attacked by Iraqi militants. "He pledged his unwavering support to the Maupin family," said Maj. Mark Magalski, the Army casualty assistance officer who has been working closely with the Maupin family for 2 1/2 months. At a noon press conference Thursday in the parking lot of Willowville Elementary School in Union Township, only a few hundred yards from the Maupin home, Magalski and Maj. Willie Harris, public affairs officer of the 88th Regional Readiness Command, said there is still no evidence to suggest that Maupin was the person seen on Al-Jazeera television being shot in the back of the head in a dark, grainy video. "Matt Maupin's status remains the same - captured, whereabouts unknown," said Harris.....
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June 29, 2004 |
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UNION TOWNSHIP, Ohio — Friends and supporters of Army Spc. Keith “Matt” Maupin gathered in vigils and prayer Monday while his family waited behind closed doors for the official word on his fate, amid reports that Iraqi militants had killed him. The Gulf-based Arab television network Al-Jazeera television reported Monday that Iraqi militants said Maupin, held hostage for 81 days, was killed because the U.S. government did not change its policy in Iraq. But U.S. military officials who discussed the reported video with Maupin’s family said there was no confirmation that it was the 20-year-old soldier. Since Maupin’s April 9 capture became public, his hometown and home county, which also learned last week that Army Sgt. Charles Kiser, 37, of Amelia, Ohio, was killed by a car bomb in Iraq, have grabbed every opportunity to demonstrate their support for him. Yellow ribbons and signs with messages of hopes have decorated much of Clermont County and there have been repeated prayer vigils. During the day Monday, people came to Glen Este High School for an impromptu vigil for the Class of 2001 graduate and his family. Another vigil was held Monday night at the local Clermont County Courthouse in Batavia. “If Matt is alive, please bring him home safe,” the Rev. Brent Snook prayed before the crowd of more than 200 people where many shed tears. “God, if he is not, we understand, Father, that you have thoughts and ways we don’t understand, so, Lord, we continue to trust you.” The Al-Jazeera news report came hours after the United States returned sovereignty in Iraq to an interim government. The report did not say when Maupin was supposed to have been killed. The Clermont County native, whose 21st birthday would be July 13, was captured during an Iraqi insurgent assault on a convoy west of Baghdad on April 9. The Arab satellite network Monday aired video showing a blindfolded man sitting on the ground. Al-Jazeera said that in the next scene, gunmen shoot the man in the back of the head, in front of a hole dug in the ground. It did not show the killing, the Associated Press reported. However, Army Maj. Willie Harris, public affairs officer for the 88th Regional Readiness Command, stressed that there is “no indication so far that the video contains footage of Matt Maupin or any other Army soldier.” Maupin was seen in captivity in a video shown on Al-Jazeera April 16. There had been no word on his condition since then. Al-Jazeera said a statement was issued Monday with the video in the name of a group calling itself “The Sharp Sword against the Enemies of God and His Prophet.” Maupin was among nine Americans, seven of them contractors, who disappeared after the April 9 attack. The bodies of four civilian employees of Kellogg Brown & Root — a subsidiary of Vice President Dick Cheney’s former company Halliburton — were later found in a shallow grave near the site of the attack. The body of Sgt. Elmer Krause, of Greensboro, N.C., was found soon after. One civilian driver, Thomas Hamill of Macon, Miss., was kidnapped but escaped from his captors nearly a month later. The others are missing. Promotion in absentia Maupin was promoted in absentia on May 1 from private first class to the rank of specialist, said Maj. Mark Magalski, a spokesman for the 633rd QM Battalion, based in Cincinnati. Maupin was assigned to the Army Reserve’s 724th Transportation Company, based at Bartonville, Ill. Harris; Rep. Rob Portman; and Magalski, the Maupin family’s casualty assistance officer, met with the Maupin family in the family’s home Monday afternoon before Harris briefed reporters who were camped out in a yard across the street. Harris criticized some local media reports early in the day as being premature, “incorrect” and “not substantiated.” “The military stance is his status remains ‘captured,’ “ Harris said. Local reporters and camera crews began gathering outside the Maupin home by 8 a.m. as the first reports circulated. By evening, there were a half-dozen satellite trucks and dozens of media Military officers filtered in and out of the home during the day, providing escorts for Maupin family members while two Union Township police cruisers guarded the house. Just before noon, Maupin’s sister, Lee Ann Spencer, in tears, walked into the house with her fiancé, Carl Cottrell. Maupin’s father, Keith Maupin, left the home with Harris for a few hours in the afternoon, returning about 5 p.m. “As you can understand, the Maupins are very upset,” Harris told reporters in a scolding over the morning news reports. Besides the seas of yellow ribbons across Clermont County, many in the area have displayed electric candles in their windows to symbolically light Maupin’s way home. Posters of Maupin in his uniform are displayed in the First Baptist Church of Glen Este, about a mile from his home, as well as on the chain-link fence of a school bus parking lot near Glen Este. Yellow ribbons are tied to the fence in rows and pots of flowers have been left at its base. Paper cups stuck into the fence spell out “U.S.A.” and “Matt,” and a nearby sign reads: “We Are All Praying for You, Matt.” As night fell, a convoy of 10 vehicles
drove past the Maupin home waving American flags and honking
horns. |
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SYNOPSIS |
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The U.S. military said two American soldiers and seven employees of U.S. contractor Kellogg, Brown & Root were missing after their convoy was ambushed Friday, April 9, near Abu Ghraib, west of Baghdad. Only one, Thomas Hamill, a 43-year-old truck driver from Macon, Miss., was previously known to have been abducted. His captors have threatened to kill and mutilate him unless U.S. troops ended their assault on the city of Fallujah. The deadline passed Sunday with no word on his fate. New videotape aired on Friday on Al-Jazeera which broadcast a video which showed a young man wearing camouflage and a floppy desert hat. He was sitting on the floor. He was surrounded by five gunmen, their faces covered by scarves. The U.S. Army soldier identified himself as "Pfc. Keith Matthew Maupin." Maupin joined the Army Reserves to help pay for college. His mother, Carolyn, headed a local support group for military moms. A brother had just completed his Marine basic training. I am married with a 10-month-old child,” said the man, who frequently looked down, as if reading words on a piece of paper. “I came to liberate Iraq, but I did not come willingly because I wanted to stay with my child.” Sgt. Elmer C. Krause, 40, of Greensboro, N.C., and Pfc. Keith "Matt" Maupin, 20, of Batavia, Ohio, were previously identified and noted as DUTY STATUS WHERE-A-BOUTS UNKNOWN. Fox News reported Maupin was known in high school for his tenacity on the football field and in the classroom, friends and family said. CNN reported Maupin, 20, graduated three years ago from Glen Este High School in Cincinnati, Ohio. The school issued a statement calling him a "great kid" and "an excellent student" who won the Scholar Athlete Award for maintaining a 3.5 GPA while playing football. "We're pulling for him. He's a fighter," Dan Simmons, athletic director at Glen Este High School the Fox News article said. "Matt was a selfless kid on the football field," Simmons said. "He did whatever the coaches told him. He wasn't a starter, but he made the other kids play harder CNN reported that the family spokesman said "We have viewed the videotape of Matt, as all of you have, I'm sure, and our family is very happy and prays for Matt's safety," spokesman Carl Cottrell said, reading a statement from Maupin's family. "To show your belief in his safe return,
we ask the community of Batavia as well as surrounding communities
and across the nation to tie yellow ribbons in Matt's honor 'till he
safely returns home, so that when he does return home, he'll see the
support that we've seen over the course of these last five days."
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May 31, 2004 |
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For a few moments Monday, people in a small crowd at the corner of Central Parkway and Vine Street downtown were not thinking about the Taste of Cincinnati Festival going on behind them. Instead, the 100 or so people focused on Memorial Day and one soldier in particular -- Army Spc. Matt Maupin, the 20-year-old Clermont County man who is the only U.S. soldier being held captive in Iraq. Maupin's family sat on a stage downtown, the featured guests at a Memorial Day ceremony to honor fallen soldiers. Speaking in public for the first time since his son was captured in Iraq April 9, Keith Maupin asked the crowd to pray for his son and for all soldiers. "They are our true heroes and deserve to be remembered as much," Keith Maupin said, reading from a prepared statement. Matt Maupin, a 2001 graduate of Glen Este High School and member of the 724th Transportation Co., was part of a convoy that was attacked outside Baghdad almost two months ago. A week after the attack, the Al-Jazeera Arab television station aired footage showing Maupin apparently unarmed and surrounded by masked gunmen. Keith Maupin said it has been some time since the family has heard word about Matt. "We are still hopeful that he will return to us soon," Keith Maupin said. The ceremony, which lasted about a half hour, was kicked off by a short parade on Central Parkway. A color guard including members from all four branches of the military was led by two Cincinnati Police officers on motorcycle and followed by the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office bagpipe and drum corps playing "God Bless America." Dale Menkhaus, chairman of Taste of Cincinnati, read opening statements, telling the crowd it was appropriate to stop for a moment and reflect on those who have fallen. "It's most important today that we thank the families that have grieved and agonized," Menkhaus said. After Keith Maupin spoke, the bag pipe and drum corps played "Amazing Grace," prompting several members of the somber crowd to dab at their eyes. One of those touched by the ceremony, Marleen Scheid, of Delhi Township, said she had been following the Maupin story and felt for the family. "They have to be going through hell," Scheid said. Scheid and her husband, Larry, wore matching red "America" T-shirts and carried small American flags. She said they came downtown primarily to celebrate Memorial Day, but would stick around for Taste of Cincinnati. "We're just patriotic," she said. "We were looking for a parade or ceremony or something and saw this one in the paper. And it looked like the best." Keith and Carolyn Maupin, Matt's parents, didn't talk beyond the prepared statement read by Keith. After the ceremony, they walked to the tent housing an organization dedicated to supporting U.S. troops. There stood a large, wooden yellow ribbon -- the symbol of support for U.S. soldiers and locally, for Matt Maupin -- covered in written messages from anyone passing by who wanted to sign. Both Carolyn and Keith Maupin wrote messages. "To all troops, thank you," Carolyn Maupin wrote. And Keith Maupin wrote: "Godspeed your return."
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May 1, 2004 |
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On May 1, Maupin was promoted in absentia to specialist by his commander at the 724th Transportation Company, said Maj. Willie Harris, a spokesman for the 88th Regional Readiness Command, which oversees Maupin's Army Reserve unit based in Bartonville, Ill. There has been no update on
Maupin from the Pentagon in recent weeks. Prayer vigils continue in
his hometown. Yellow ribbons fly across the U.S. waiting for his
return. |
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April 19, 2004 |
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Maupin's family calls video 'chilling'Monday, April 19, 2004 Posted: 11:12 PM EDT (0312 GMT)
(CNN) -- The family of a U.S. soldier being held captive in Iraq was "relieved somewhat" to see him looking "strong" but described the videotape showing him surrounded by masked gunmen as "chilling," a family spokesman said Monday. U.S. Army Pfc. Keith Matthew Maupin, 20, was surrounded by armed guards in the tape aired Friday on the Arabic-language television network Al-Jazeera. The videotape was the first image of him since he went missing April 9. "Since Friday, we have waited with heartfelt patience for additional news regarding Matt," Carl Cottrell, speaking for the family, told reporters in a news conference near Maupin's hometown of Batavia, Ohio. "Each time it's aired on TV, it brings the same reaction as viewed for the first time," Cottrell said. "Our hopes remain high" that he will come home, Cottrell said, adding Maupin looked "strong" in the video -- "like he always does." Cottrell said the U.S. Army changed Maupin's status Monday to "captured" from "whereabouts unknown." He also said the family would not comment on the situation in Iraq because they felt that it could "jeopardize the safety and security of Matt, as well as the other individuals." On the tape, Maupin's abductors say they want to trade him for prisoners held by the United States. The family heard the Rev. Jesse Jackson's televised comments about his efforts to try to reach the kidnappers of Maupin and others in Iraq, but the Maupins have not had any direct contact with him, Cottrell said. Cottrell said the Maupin family got a call Sunday from former prisoner of war Jessica Lynch. The Army private first class was rescued after being captured in the U.S. push toward Baghdad in the first phase of the war in Iraq.
"Jessica and her family conveyed their compassion for our family's situation and then shared a tender moment with us in prayer," Cottrell said. The Maupin family is looking forward to the day when "Matt can personally thank Jessica and her family for being there during these most difficult of times." Maupin's older sister, Leann, clung to Cottrell's arm during the news conference held near Batavia, but he said she declined to speak. He said the community's support and prayers have helped the family deal with the shock, sadness and uncertainty surrounding Maupin's situation. A senior coalition official Saturday said the U.S. Army reservist appeared in the videotape to be in good health and showed "no characteristics of having been tortured" or roughed up. "They are doing everything in their power, I'm sure, to bring Matt home," Cottrell said of the U.S. military. He said the family has been reassured by a message in a letter from a stranger that quoted a West African proverb: "Love never loses its way home." The Maupin family also is urging all Americans to display yellow ribbons in a show of support for all U.S. military personnel and civilian contractors in Iraq and to "guide them home."
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April 17, 2004 |
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(CNN) -- A videotape showing a uniformed man who identifies himself as a missing U.S. soldier was broadcast on the Arabic-language television network Al-Jazeera.
The tape broadcast on Friday shows six men -- four holding rifles and one with a pistol -- standing behind a man seated on the ground and wearing a U.S. Army uniform, who gives his name as Keith Matthew Maupin.
The man, who does not appear to have shaved in several days, wears a camouflage hat in the video.
"We have taken one of the U.S. soldiers hostage," the narrator said.
"He is in good health and being treated based on the tenets of Islamic law for the treatment of soldiers taken hostage. We will keep him until we trade him for our prisoners in the custody of the U.S. enemy. We want them to know -- and the whole world to know -- that when we took him in, he came out of his tank holding a white flag and he lay face down on the ground, just like other soldiers."
U.S. Central Command spokesman Capt. Bruce Frame said Maupin is one of two U.S. soldiers unaccounted for since last Friday, when their fuel convoy came under attack by rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire near Baghdad.
Another tape was dropped off Friday at the U.S. Embassy in Doha, Qatar, and then turned over to Central Command in Doha, where officials were trying to verify its authenticity, Frame said.
CNN's Jamie McIntyre explained that Maupin is considered a hostage, and not a prisoner of war, because he is being held in exchange for something --- in this case, the release of prisoners being held by U.S. forces.
Also missing since the attack is Sgt. Elmer Krause, 40, of Greensboro, North Carolina. Both he and Maupin, 20, of Batavia, Ohio, were with the Army's 724th Transportation Company out of Bartonsville, Illinois, and are listed as "duty-status whereabouts unknown" by the military.
Six civilian contractors of the Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root are also missing since the fuel convoy attack.
Another KBR contractor, Thomas Hamill, a truck driver from Macon, Miss., has been seen on videotape in the custody of armed men with their faces covered.
His captors said they would kill him on Easter if the United States did not withdraw its troops from the Sunni city of Fallujah. The deadline to meet demands from his captors has come and gone.
The coalition attributes the recent round of hostage-taking in Iraq to the actions of the insurgency.
03/14/2009 22:03:27