Remains of Soldier Missing Since ’04 Are Found in Iraq

[Jag]

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: March 31, 2008

BATAVIA, Ohio (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 were found in Iraq.
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The man, Keith Maupin, said at a news conference in suburban Cincinnati that an Army general told him DNA testing had identified the remains of his son, Sgt. Keith Matthew Maupin, or Matt, as he was known.

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. Lieutenant Packnett said an official statement about the identification would be released Monday.

Sergeant Maupin was a 20-year-old private first class when he was captured on April 9, 2004, after his fuel convoy, part of the 724th Transportation Company, was ambushed west of Baghdad. A month after his capture, he was promoted to the rank of specialist. In April 2005, he was promoted to sergeant.

A week after his capture, the Arab television network Al Jazeera broadcast a videotape showing Sergeant Maupin sitting on the floor surrounded by five masked men holding automatic rifles.

That June, Al Jazeera broadcast another tape purporting to show an American 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.

“You never stop hoping. You never know,” his mother, Carolyn Maupin, said in 2006 after an Iraqi Al Qaeda leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed in a American airstrike, leading to speculation that American intelligence could be getting closer to learning Sergeant Maupin’s fate.

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 him as a quiet but hard-working backup player on the school’s football team.
“Matt was a selfless kid on the football field,” Mr. Simmons said. “He did whatever the coaches told him. He wasn’t a starter, but he made the other kids play harder.”

Rest in Peace Matt....
Jag

[Ryan Ruck]

Thanks for posting this Jag.

I've meant to make my own post on this but have just been too busy these last couple days.

Matt's parents live a few miles from me. Needless to say this has been big news around here.

I had a feeling that back when they showed that grainy execution video, it was him. With the old Army desert cammies and the boonie cap, it was unlikely to be anyone else. Though this is obviously not the outcome that people had hoped for, at least his parents were able to have closure.

Also, remember, Matt isn't the only MIA... Scott Speicher from GW1 is still missing as is the civilian contractor in the same convoy as Matt Maupin, Timothy Bell.