Maupin's impact clear to all
On a day when the impact of a
Clermont County soldier’s life and death was clear to the entire
community, an Army official said a tip from a local Iraqi helped
lead to the remains of Staff Sgt. Matt Maupin, who disappeared in
Iraq nearly four years ago.
Maj. Mark Cheadle with the
Multi-National Division public affairs office in Baghdad said the
military received tips over the last few years in its search for
Staff Sgt. Matt Maupin. He says the last one from a local Iraqi
proved to be the most accurate.
Cheadle says the tip – first
reported by the Dayton Daily News – helped lead military
authorities to the site in northwest Baghdad where Maupin’s
remains were found. Cheadle said he couldn’t provide any more
details.
Maupin’s impact was evident Monday
even at the Cincinnati area’s annual rite of Opening Day, where
thousands stood in solemn tribute to the fallen soldier; and was
just as deeply felt 500 miles away in the tiny central Illinois
town of Bartonville, where Matt Maupin’s Army Reserve unit
mourned.
It was the talk of an America Legion
convention in Washington, and, no doubt, in Iraq itself, where
thousands of soldiers far away from home have stayed in touch with
family using computers donated by the Maupin family.
Since Sunday afternoon, when a
three-star general traveled from the Pentagon to Union Township to
give the news to the soldier’s parents, Keith and Carolyn Maupin,
there has been no information forthcoming from the military on how
Maupin’s remains were discovered – only a confirmation that DNA
evidence was used to prove it was him.
The official release from the Department of Defense Monday said
only that the investigation was continuing and that Maupin’s
official status had been changed from “captured and missing” to
“deceased” – no information yet on how the soldier, captured in a
convoy attack near Baghdad nearly four years ago, died.
But the lack of answers did not stop the outpouring of love and
affection through every corner of the Cincinnati area, and well
beyond it:
AT THE PARADE
They removed their ball caps in the
rain and placed them over their hearts. They saluted. They
cheered. And, they cried.
That’s how spectators paid tribute to Matt Maupin as the parents
of the late, long-missing soldier passed by in a bronze PT Cruiser
convertible during Monday’s 89th Annual Findlay Market Opening Day
Parade.
“Hero! Hero! Hero!” shouted David Beall, a Finneytown native in
town from his home in Cary, N. C. Beall stood under an awning near
the intersection of Seventh and Race streets as the Maupins rolled
by sitting atop the PT Cruiser’s back seat.
“They’re all heroes,” Beall said. “Matt Maupin and his parents. He
gave his life for our country. They never gave up hope.”
As the parade snaked its way down Race Street onto Fifth Street,
past Fountain Square and Government Square, cheers rose in volume
for the Maupins. Keith and Carolyn Maupin wiped rain and tears
from their eyes as they acknowledged the applause.
At Government Square, Ken Gannon darted from the crowd and
presented Carolyn with a single white rose and a sprig of
leather-leaf fern.
“I bought it from a florist around the corner,” said Gannon of
Ludlow, Ky. “Don’t know how much it cost. Doesn’t matter. I bought
it to give to Mrs. Maupin. She deserves it. I told her: ‘I’ll
never forget your son.’ ”
Keith Maupin looked at the rose. A parade participant walked up to
him and said:
“Sorry for your loss.”
Maupin shook his head and tugged at his long beard.
“I look at it as a gain,” he said.
“Matt’s coming home.”
AT THE BALLPARK
After the moment of silence for Joe
Nuxhall at Great American Ball Park, three lifelong Green Township
pals raised their beer glasses and said in unison: “To Joe!”
After the moment of silence for Matt Maupin, the three friends –
Adam Siegel, Michael McKenna and Tony Luca – lowered their heads.
“Both were tear-jerker moments,” McKenna said.
“Joe was everybody’s grandpa,” Siegel said.
“Matt Maupin,” McKenna added, “was everybody’s little brother.”
IN MOUNT CARMEL
The U.S. flag was at half-staff
Monday outside American Legion Post 72 in Mount Carmel, where
Maupin was a member along with his father.
Near the big-screen TV, where the night before someone in a crowd
of about 30 had noticed a news flash that Maupin had been found, a
lone plate sat on a table.
Next to it were a spoon and fork, a plastic red rose in a vase, an
electric candle (unlighted), a photograph of Maupin, and a black
POW-MIA patch that had his name on it and the words: “You are not
forgotten.”
“We had the table set for him and everything if he would have come
home,” said Dick Ostendorf, commander of post.
“We’ve been hoping all the time he would be found alive, but hope
kind of slipped away as time went on,” Ostendorf said.
Matt was accepted as a post member a couple weeks before he went
missing, but several members knew him before that, said Norm
Nedeau, a former post commander.
AT HIS CHURCH
Maupin was a member of First Baptist
Church of Glen Este, but no plans have been made there yet
regarding a funeral, said Joy Snook, wife of Pastor Brent Snook.
Clermont County Commissioner Bob Proud is also a member of the
church, which holds about 500.
“Our challenge as far as the funeral is the location because it
will be well attended,” Proud said. “I don’t believe that the
church would be big enough. … Matt’s a national figure. … There
have been suggestions of U.S. Bank Arena (or) Cincinnati Gardens.
“When we get more details of when the remains will come back, we
will be working with Keith and Carolyn (Maupin) on the funeral
arrangements – and then it’s up to them.”
AT HIS SCHOOL
Despite the rain and chill Monday
afternoon, C.J. Pickelheimer and Daniel Wulker, juniors who are
co-captains of the cross country team, were running the track that
encircles the football field at Glen Este High School.
Maupin, who graduated in 2001, played football for the school.
At 7:15 a.m. Monday, just after the students arrived, principal
Dennis Ashworth announced over the public address system that it
was a terrible loss for the Glen Este community, C.J. said.
A moment of silence was observed, he said.
“It was obviously sad, but better than not knowing at all,” said
Daniel, 16. “It was nice to have closure, I guess, after that
long.”
C.J. said he received text messages Sunday from a bunch of
friends, alerting him that Maupin had been found.
“I was hoping that nothing had happened to him,” said C.J., 17.
“Our prayers go out to the Maupin family.”
The U.S. flag at the entrance to the school was at half-staff,
above a black one for MIAs and POWs.
AT SAM’S CLUB
At the entrance to the Sam’s Club on
Clepper Drive, where Maupin worked before being deployed to Iraq,
Ruby Elias of Mount Carmel greeted visitors Monday.
Pinned to her blue vest was a button with a photo of Maupin, which
she said she had worn since the day she learned he had been
captured.
Now, Elias said, she will never remove it.
“He started out as a (shopping) cart guy,” Elias said. “I was a
door greeter. We’d be in contact all day long” as he retrieved
carts from the parking lot.
“Matt was just a sweet person to work with,” Elias said. “We miss
him a lot. We were all still praying he would come back to us.”
IN ILLINOIS
Sgt. Michael Bailey, then a platoon
leader in Matt Maupin’s Army reserve company, knows full well it
could have been him captured and killed in the Iraq desert four
years ago.
And, the truth be told, he wishes that it was.
To spare Matt Maupin’s parents the agony of a four-year wait to
learn their son’s fate, he would have gladly traded places with
the young soldier from Clermont County.
“I’ve had a good life,” said Bailey Monday from his home in
Bartonville, Ill. “I’m 51 years old. Better that it would have
been me, instead of a young man just starting his life like Matt.”
Bailey has been a soldier all his adult life; it is all he ever
wanted to be. He was first an Army Ranger; then was a platoon
leader in the 724th Transportation Co., Matt Maupin’s unit; and
now, 51 years old and with a bum shoulder, a member of a medical
unit in his native Illinois.
For almost four years now, there has not been a single day when,
in his mind’s eye, he has not seen that face – the face of a big,
strapping soldier, barely old enough to shave, smiling and saying
good morning.
It was Private First Class Matt Maupin, preparing to go climb
aboard a truck and go on an escort mission from which he would
never return.
Bailey said to him what he had said to countless young soldiers
about to walk into danger: “Stay alert and watch yourself out
there.”
Later that morning – the morning of April 9, 2004 – Bailey’s own
platoon was about to leave on its own escort mission when he heard
the news – Maupin’s platoon had been hit – two soldiers dead on
the ground, six civilians dead, and one soldier missing, presumed
captured.
Bailey is a product of the Army’s warrior ethos, the promise each
man and woman in uniform make to each other that no one is to be
left behind.
He didn’t have to, but, since that day in April 2004, he has
volunteered not once but twice to return to Iraq, to help with the
search for Maupin.
“When I went back, I don’t know how many officers I talked to –
majors, colonels – who had been in on the searches,” Bailey said.
“I know that in some areas, soldiers went through sectors
literally on their hands and knees, sifting dirt, trying to find
some trace of Matt.”
He wants people to understand one thing – that the U.S. Army never
gave up on finding Matt Maupin, even though little information
dribbled out on the search over the past few years.
Since then, he has become close to Matt’s parents, Keith and
Carolyn Maupin. He spoke to them on the phone Monday morning. He
assured them that, when it comes time for Matt’s funeral, he is
already in the process of organizing a contingent from the 724th
to come to Ohio.
“They have become like my own mom and dad,” said Bailey. “they are
decent, kind and caring people who have done so much for others. I
wish I could take away their pain. I can’t. But I can let them
know how much I love them.”
Staff writers
Barrett J. Brunsman, Cliff Radel and Malia Rulon contributed.
