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Source:
Compiled by P.O.W. NETWORK from one or more of the following: raw data
from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA
families, published sources, interviews, FOX NEWS online, MSNBC News
online, CNN News online. Updated April 2005.
Synopsis:
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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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.
Prayer
vigils continue in his hometown. Yellow ribbons fly across the U.S.
waiting for his return.
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