Remains ID'd As Soldier Missing 4 Years

Sgt. "Matt" Maupin's Father: "My Heart Sinks, But I Know They Can't Hurt Him Anymore"

(AP)  The father of a soldier listed as missing-captured in Iraq since 2004 said Sunday that the military had informed him that his son's remains had been found.

Keith Maupin said an Army general told him DNA testing had identified the remains of his son, Sgt. Keith Matthew Maupin, or "Matt" as he was commonly known. He said the Army didn't say how or where in Iraq his son's remains were discovered, only that officials found a shirt similar to the one his son was wearing at the time of his disappearance.

"My heart sinks, but I know they can't hurt him anymore," Maupin said, speaking in the soldier's hometown near suburban Cincinnati.

The Army was continuing its investigation, he said.

Lt. Lee Packnett, an Army public affairs officer in Washington, confirmed that the Maupins were notified Sunday that their son's remains had been identified. Packnett said an official statement about the identification would be released Monday.

Matt Maupin was a 20-year-old private first class when he was captured April 9, 2004, after his fuel convoy, part of the 724th Transportation Company, was ambushed west of Baghdad.

A week later, the Arab television network Al-Jazeera aired a videotape showing Maupin sitting on the floor surrounded by five masked men holding automatic rifles.

That June, Al-Jazeera aired another tape purporting to show a U.S. soldier being shot. But the dark and grainy tape showed only the back of the victim's head and not the actual shooting.

The Maupins refused to believe it was their son, and the Army had listed him as missing-captured. The Maupins lobbied hard for the Army to continue listing their son as missing-captured, fearing that another designation would undermine efforts to find him.

Keith Maupin said the Army told him early on that there was only a 50 percent chance his son would be found alive. He said he doesn't hold the Army responsible for his son's death, but that he did hold the Army responsible for bringing his son home.

"I told them when we'd go up to the Pentagon, whether he walks off a plane or is carried off, you're not going to leave him in Iraq like you did those guys in Vietnam," Maupin said.

Keith Maupin and his ex-wife, Carolyn, held a candlelight vigil Sunday night outside the Yellow Ribbon Support Center in Batavia, an office they used to package thousands of boxes of donated snacks and toiletries for shipment to soldiers in Iraq.

"It hurts," Carolyn Maupin said of her son's death. "After you go through almost four years of hope, and this is what happens, it's like a let down, so I'm trying to get through that right now."

Two U.S. soldiers remain missing in action in Iraq. Ahmed Qusai al-Taayie, a 41-year-old Iraqi-born reserve soldier from Ann Arbor, Mich., was abducted while visiting his Iraqi wife on Oct. 23, 2006, in Baghdad. Capt. Michael Speicher, a Navy pilot, has been missing since the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

Matt Maupin graduated from Glen Este High School, just east of Cincinnati, in 2001 and attended the University of Cincinnati for a year before joining the Army Reserves.

Dan Simmons, the athletic director at Glen Este, remembered Maupin as a quiet but hardworking backup player on the school's football team.

"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."

A month after his capture, Maupin was promoted to the rank of specialist. In April 2005, he was promoted to sergeant.

[rebelscout]

My condolences to the Maupin family and freinds of Matt. I hope no one turn''s this into a political rant. I''m a vet who know''s the pain of freind''s dying. I don''t agree with this war but please everybody hold off,okay?

[sgtrds]

RIP bro.............

''

[rowdytexan2]

Rest in peace, young son. Thanks for your service to this country.

Sincere condolences to this family on your loss. God bless you!

[sgtrds]

I hope no one turn''''s this into a political rant. I''''m a vet who know''''s the pain of freind''''s dying. I don''''t agree with this war but please everybody hold off,okay?

Posted by rebelscout at 01:17 AM : Mar 31, 2008

I hope so too. Somethings, like the death of a fellow soldier, are just too important...............

I lost friends too.......

[yongamerica]

Brave stand, Rest easy.

[sgtrds]

lovekillme

Inhuman as*shole.

[samthetvcat]

Maupins, my heart goes out to you - may God be with you in your time of grief ...

[termtex01]

"What is different today is there are no soldiers "known only to God".

Posted by Nancy_Naive at 06:31 AM : Mar 31, 2008"

You need to read up on it a bit more.

http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/tombofun.htm

http://www.tombguard.org/

http://www.ushistory.org/tour/tour_tomb.htm

http://c.h.waters.home.att.net/tomb.html

http://www.arlingtoncemetery.org/visitor_information/tomb_of_the_unknowns.html

[cooper4evr]

Gone but not forgot! RIP Soldier!! Your face has been engraved in my memory for the last 4 years since I first saw you! I prayed for a better outcome and am saddened at the results. I know you are in a much better place and your family can start the grieving process!! Thank You my friend for everything that you are, you are my hero as well as are others. You finally get to come home!

[mudrose-2009]

Vandals last week targeted the Milwaukee Army Recruiting Station, leaving behind the anti-war graffiti message "War Is Offensive." On March 6, a hooded bicyclist was captured on video pedaling away from the military recruiting station in New York''s Times Square after a small homemade explosive damaged the facade of America''s busiest recruiting center.
Milwaukee and Times Square are among the incidents listed in Move America Forward''s report, which documents protests, broken windows, graffiti, bombs and other disturbances among the "attacks."

This is what the Maupin''s of the world died sacrificed their lives for - so chicken ****** can say war is offensive, but never have to experience it.

[ici2i]

May you rest in peace young fellow.

Another brave soldier willing to give his final measure of devotion but murdered by the Bush/Cheney administration of doom and evil.

[mudrose-2009]

Posted by iCi2i

He was murdered by radical islamic fascists. How dare you victimize our troops who, unlike most of the ****** in this country, volunteered for honorable duty.

[mudrose-2009]

He was murdered by radical islamic fascists. How dare you victimize our troops who, unlike most of the ****** in this country, volunteered for honorable duty.
Posted by mudrose

[usmcvn2]

The Iraqie people are not a threat to the People''s Republic of the United States and did nothing to us. The people of Iraq did nothing to the USA and are being murdered every day.






Thanks to the Family for giving such a fine young man over to Bush"s illegal invasion of Iraq.

The family should have seen thur the Govts'' BS and stopped this young man from joining the Army.

Let us all light candles tonight.

[liberalme]

Welcome home Matt--you paid the ultimate price for doing what you thought was right for your country.

Your loyalty and love of America will forever be engrained in the heart of this great land.

Rest in peace.

[liberalme]

I get so angry when I see someone pay the ultimate price for a Bush lie.

The blood on Bushs hands will follow him to heII, it will never wash off or go away--I only wish, everyday when he wakes up--he would see the blood of thousands dripping from his hands.
I wish for him a daily reminder of what he has done to so many people.

[notblue]

Not many posts, unlike the thousand posts plus when some enemy combatants and leftwing politicians alleged torture at Guantanimo. This is the enemy we face, this story exemplifies is "their" version of torture.

[notblue]

liberlme, how about the "blood" on the hands of the enemy militants, you forgot to mention them, what''s your take on that?

[moder12-2009]

Read up on Islam -- I urge you to watch the documentary "Islam: What the West Needs to Know" -- Islam is a violent political/theological mix that resorts to the barbarity of the 7th century. It is time we put aside political correctness and rid the world of this true evil! It is amazing that we stand aside or attempt to make deals with those who cut off the heads of our GI''s and American contractors, fly planes into our buildings, and who tell us their intentions to kill us and to rid the world of Jews, Christians, and all infidels. The time to fight back is NOW!

[creeper00]

"the Army didn''t say how or where in Iraq his son''s remains were discovered"

Why not? Getting information from our government is like prying the bark off a tree.

This "administration" won''t tell you the truth unless they''re ordered to by a court.

Disgusting.

[liberalme]

liberlme, how about the "blood" on the hands of the enemy militants, you forgot to mention them, what''''s your take on that?

Posted by notblue at 12:09 PM : Mar 31, 2008

That was the "radical" musims--who were not in Iraq, when Bush used our troops as bait to get them in Iraq.

Bin Laden was in Afganistan.

"Radical" muslims are in every country inthe world, have been fighting over religion since the beginning of time and the US is never going to stop it--all we''ve done is to put ourselves right smack in the middle of it.

[liberalme]

Islam is a violent political/theological mix that resorts to the barbarity of the 7th century. It is time we put aside political correctness and rid the world of this true evil! It is amazing that we stand aside or attempt to make deals with those who cut off the heads of our GI''''s and American contractors, fly planes into our buildings, and who tell us their intentions to kill us and to rid the world of Jews, Christians, and all infidels. The time to fight back is NOW!
Posted by moder12 at 12:15 PM

That again is the "radical" muslims, not all muslims are terrorists anymore than all italians are mafia or germans are communists.