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 On
March 31st, 2008 the Army announced that the remains of Matt were positively identified. The have not released the full details,
but at least one of the families wishes were answered:
"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.
The story can be read here:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,343388,00.html
Keith Maupin Meet-and-Greet
On March 6th I had the privilege of meeting Keith
Maupin at the new VFW Post off of Anderson Snow Road in Spring Hill.
Keith's Son Matt has been missing in Iraq since April 9th, 2004 when
the refueling convoy he was in came under heavy attack.
Keith told me a bit of the story. Matt was driving a
fuel tanker when they were attacked. His Lieutenant, who was driving
in the first vehicle in the convoy, was one of the first ones hit. He
was shot in the eye, but survived the attack. There was a Army
Specialist driving that Hummer that Matt's Lieutenant was in. This
Specialist...probably all of 19-20 years old, went back into the area
that they came under attack and rescued/recovered ten of his fellow
soldiers. The fighting was so intense, that after he rescued the tenth
soldier he could no make it back to the next vehicle in the convoy.
That vehicle was the tanker being driven by Matt Maupin.
This is some of the other things Keith said:
“We want to make sure that people know we have
people missing”
“I’m not going to say whether or not I
think this war is right, but I’ll be the first to say “Hell” is we
think we are going to leave anyone behind.”
Matt volunteered. I think that says more about
our military now…they all volunteer. So, I can’t raise hell…the only
one responsible for Matt’s choices, is Matt, but we can hold the
Government accountable for bringing him back.
We want to make awareness for Matt. The
difference between Vietnam's POWs and POWs of today is Night and Day.
Keith has Met President Bush 8 times. He
receives Christmas cards from him every year.
He has been on Air Force One with
President Bush. President Bush asked him “When are you going to cut
that beard off?
Keith replied: “When you bring Matt home”
He went on to say “It was a mistake for them to
give him enough time to get used to speaking in front of people. He
has realized that if we can’t come together as a family…they will be
left there. You have to put pressure on them, or they don’t care.
Keith currently runs an outreach support center
in Ohio.
To date they have sent over 10,000 packages to
Iraq…each with 10 pictures of Matt in them for troops to hand out to
the locals.
He has sent 90 computers to soldiers in
Iraq.
He has a “Let us never forget scholarship
Fund” The will give out 101 scholarships this year. 50 - $1000 dollar
scholarships for the 50 “Fallen” in the Tri-state area (of Ohio). The
other 51 are varying amounts.
He said his first mission is Matt
His second mission is to Support Our
Troops.
He said, "Pray for Matt…it is not an
excuse that we have no knowledge". When he was talking about that he
was talking about the fact that we still have so many people missing
from past wars that we don't realize. What he was saying was true...I
wasn't really educated on our POW/MIA status from past wars so I did
some research. You can view that missing here:
These names are
the State of Florida alone.
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