Army Promotes Missing Ohio Soldier To
Sergeant
Maupin Missing Since Last April
POSTED:
5:33 pm EDT April 4, 2005
BATAVIA, Ohio -- 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 Maj. 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, Ill., 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, Va., 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.
=======================================
Missing soldier's family refuses to give up
Monday, April 4, 2005
Missing soldier's family refuses to give up
Army may classify him as deceased
By
Michael A. Lindenberger
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 happened
Bailey 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?' "
==================================
New Details Surface
In Matt Maupin Case
New details in Matt Maupin case in LA Times report
(WCPO/WCPO.com)
Reported by: 9News
Web produced by: Neil Relyea
Photographed by: 9News
3/28/2005 10:25:33 PM
A 280-page report US Army report obtained by the Los Angeles
Times reportedly describes a series of errors and
miscommunications that led up to the April 9, 2004 attack on
Specialist Matt Maupin's convoy.
Maupin was traveling in a 26-vehicle convoy, escorting
Haliburton contractors as they hauled jet fuel across one of the
most dangerous roads in Iraq.
According to the LA Times, poor communication sent the men into
an active battlefield.
A US soldier who approved the route allegedly changed his mind
minutes later and sent an e-mail advising the road was closed.
However, he accidentally sent the e-mail to himself and it never
reached the convoy.
Also according to the LA Times, the report states Haliburton let
its men drive unarmored military vehicles, making them appear as
a military target.
=========================
Nation - From
the Feb. 21, 2005 issue of TIME magazine
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
By MARK THOMPSON
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1027512,00.html
...... 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.......
==========================
Friday,
July 2, 2004
Bush phones to bolster Maupins
President pledges 'unwavering support' for soldier's family
By Howard Wilkinson
Enquirer staff writer
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.....
===========================
July 29, 2004
Family waits for news of soldier
By Charles Hurt
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
The Ohio family of captured Army Reserve Spc. Keith Maupin prayed
yesterday that news of his execution was untrue.
Arab network Al Jazeera reported this week that
Spc. Maupin was fatally shot in the back of the head after nearly three
months of captivity, but U.S. Army officials declined to confirm the
death since they have only a grainy execution video and no body.
Meanwhile, a
prisoner-of-war group condemned the Pentagon for classifying the
20-year-old reservist as "missing-captured" as opposed to
"prisoner of war."
"It's an insult to every man and woman
serving in the military," said Lynn O'Shea, research director of
the National Alliance of POW/MIA Families. "Why diminish the status
of the captives?"
Specifically, Ms. O'Shea said, POW status
requires that captives be treated in accord with rules set by the Geneva
Conventions, which do not mention "missing-captured" status by
name.
Granted, she added, the Iraq-based terrorists
capturing and slaughtering people on camera don't seem too concerned
about the Geneva Conventions or any other international laws, but it
gives a certain standing.
"You don't even have the moral grounds to
say that this is a prisoner of war, and he must be treated according to
the Geneva Convention," she said.
Shari Lawrence, deputy public affairs officer of
the Army Human Rights Command, said it was a simple matter of following
the established guidelines for classifying captured service members.
"To be a prisoner of war, you have to be
held by a recognized government," she said, which has not been the
case with Spc. Maupin and many other American soldiers captured during
the war in Iraq.
The issue of Spc. Maupin's status arose earlier
this month after a POW group sent the Maupin family a box of POW/MIA
bracelets for the Maupins and others to wear as a constant reminder of
Spc. Maupin's captivity.
On June 6, the Army officer assisting the Maupin
family responded with an e-mail.
"I gave [the bracelets] to the Maupin
family, and they were very appreciative of the gift," the Army
major wrote. "However, technically [Spc. Maupin] is not classified
as a POW. His status remains 'captured.' "
He went on to say the "Maupin family is
reluctant to wear the bracelets" because they "just don't want
to offend anyone, especially family members of past POW/MIAs."
It stirs up a sensitive debate among POW groups,
who accuse the Pentagon of trying to eliminate the status entirely. Ms.
Lawrence said this is simply not the case.
But, she said, she understands that "it's a
very emotional issue."
"I think sometimes people think that if
they're not listed as POW, then they're not remembered or carried in the
same status," Ms. Lawrence said. "That's not true. They are
carried in the same status."
Ms. O'Shea said the classification also matters
in terms of keeping the plight of captured soldiers at the front of
Americans' minds.
"If you say someone is 'missing-captured,'
it's an oxymoron. What does that mean? You can't be both. It's a
question mark," she said. " 'Prisoner of war,' though,
paints a picture. You have absolutely no question about his
status."
===================================
JUNE 28, 2004
Iraq
Sources:
Missing Soldier May Be Shot
There are unconfirmed reports that an Ohio hostage in Iraq has been
shot.
Private Keith Matt Maupin was captured in April when gunmen armed
with rocket propelled grenades attacked his convoy.
Two sources, a Cincinnati TV station and an Arabic Web site, both
cites sources close to the Maupin family as saying that the Al Jazeera
TV network has a videotape of Maupin being shot.
Stay tuned to WBNS-10TV and 10TV.com for more information.
=====================================
Maupin focus of holiday prayers
Cincinatti Post
Memorial Day 2004
By Courtney Kinney
Post staff reporter
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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