Staff Segeant Keith "Matt" Maupin
An American Hero Comes Home

Name: Keith "Matt" Maupin
Branch/Rank: U.S. Army Reserves / Pfc - Spc - Staff Sgt
Unit: Army Reserves 724th Transportation Company, Bartonville, IL
DOB: July 13, 1983
Home City of Record: Batavia, OH
Date of Loss: April 9, 2004
Original Status: Duty Status Whereabouts Unknown
... April 19, 2004 - Army Changes Status to “MISSING CAPTURED”
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground
Country of Loss: Iraq

Current Status:
... Remains found: March 20, 2008
... DNA confirms Maupin’s remains: March 30, 2008
... Remains returned home: April 26, 2008

Matt Maupin was promoted three times since he was declared missing in action, first from Private First Class to Specialist, then to Sergeant, then lastly, Staff Sergeant.

Other Personnel in Incident: Six other Kellogg, Brown & Root employees; Thomas Hamill; Sgt. Elmer C. Krause.

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: WHEREABOUTS 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."

Source:
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.

Biography:
Born on July 13, 1983, in Batavia, Ohio, Maupin was a student at Glen Este High School in Union Township, Clermont County, Ohio, with a grade point average of 3.5. He played football there and was also a rower for both Glen Este High School and Clermont High School Crew, whose boathouse is located on Harsha Lake, East Fork State Park, Bethel. He graduated in 2001 and enrolled in the University of Cincinnati Aerospace Engineering Program, using a scholarship that he had received from winning a writing competition. In 2002, he joined the United States Army Reserve and was stationed with the 705th Transport Company based in Dayton, Ohio.

Deployment:
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 2003, the 705th Transportation Company had deployed to Iraq, and Maupin was assigned to the 643rd Area Support Group out of Whitehall, Ohio.

While fulfilling his monthly obligations as a reservist, Maupin worked at a 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 TC arrived in Kuwait on February 20, 2004 and on March 5 proceeded to Logistics Support Area Anaconda, Iraq, with the 7th Transportation Battalion, 172nd Corps Support Group, 13th Corps Support Command, to begin missions delivering fuel to various coalition installations.

Capture:
Maupin is seen on this undated image made from a video broadcast by Al Jazeera on Friday, April 16, 2004. Maupin appeared alert and unhurt.(Associated Press / Al Jazeera)

On April 9, 2004, Maupin's fuel convoy came under attack near the Baghdad International Airport. In what was described as a 5-mile (8.0 km)-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, SPC Gregory Goodrich, 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 that was broadcast by the Arabic-language television 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 that protects their rights under the Third Geneva Convention.

On June 28, 2004, Al Jazeera reported that Maupin was executed by a group identifying itself as “The Persistent Power Against the Enemies of God and the Prophet”. The method of execution in the video was a gunshot to the head. The U.S. Army deemed the tape inconclusive, because it is unclear whether the man was Maupin.[citation needed]

Search for Maupin:
The Clermont County community, friends of Maupin's family, and Clermont High School Crew raised funds and received donations to build a memorial pavilion in his honor at the finish line of the rowing race course on Harsha Lake Beach, East Fork State Park, Bethel, Ohio.

Maupin was promoted three times since he was declared missing in action, first from Private First Class to Specialist, then to Sergeant, then lastly, Staff Sergeant.

"Love never loses its way home" (Twi: Odo Nnyew Fie Kwan Frame) is a West African proverb used in Iraq[verification needed] among the troops to describe the search for Staff Sergeant Maupin[citation needed]. The Maupin family also used the phrase as a cornerstone for their hope that Matt would one day return home.

Body found:
On March 30, 2008, Maupin's father told local news media that the remains of his son had been found. He states that an Army general had told him that DNA was used to identify the remains.

According to an Army statement, Maupin's remains "were recovered northwest of Baghdad on March 20, by soldiers from 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry, based out of Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, attached to 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment." The unit called the recovery effort "Operation Trojan Honor", after the mascot of Maupin's high school, Glen Este.

A tip from an Iraqi citizen led to the recovery of Maupin's remains. The US military reportedly paid a $200,000 reward for the tip that led to the recovery of Maupin's remains. Two Iraqis who were reportedly involved in Maupin's capture and death have been tried for other crimes and sentenced to death by Iraqi courts. According to Maupin's parents, as of April 2008, US and Iraqi authorities are currently searching for six to eight more Iraqis that they believe were also involved with Maupin's death.

A memorial is slated to be held in Cincinnati, Ohio, on April 27, 2008, in Great American Ball Park.

Source:
Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Matthew_Maupin)

To: The Burning Question:
Where Is Matt Maupin?