NEWS

Matt Maupin remembered with Pentagon display

Cincinnati
The display case honoring deceased Army SSgt Matt Maupin at the Pentagon.

From the moment Batavia native Staff Sgt. Keith 'Matt' Maupin went missing in Iraq in 2004, his family and friends launched a years-long campaign to make sure he would never be forgotten.

On Tuesday, that effort took a new and unforeseen turn, with a remembrance more permanent than Matt Maupin's family could have imagined.

Matt Maupin was among those honored at a Pentagon ceremony when top military officials unveiled a new dedication to members of the Army Reserve. Matt Maupin's story, his photograph, and his U.S. Army desert camouflage uniform now hang on a wall inside the famous five-sided complex in Virginia that houses the U.S. Department of Defense.

"It's bittersweet," said Keith Maupin, Matt's father, as he took his first close-up look at the memorial. Describing himself as both "happy and sad," he said it was a chance to see his son one "one more time."

"It's hard to put that in words," Keith Maupin said of his reaction.

Many other Army Reserve soldiers were included in the Pentagon dedication, including two Silver Star recipients, World War II veterans, and a Medal of Honor recipient. The Ohio soldier's story is told along with that of an Army Reserve officer who helped the Iraqi National Museum recover after looting in 2003 and others killed on Sept. 11 at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Matt Maupin was the first Army Reserve POW since the end of the Vietnam War, noted Lt. Col. Annmarie Daneker, a public affairs officer for the Army Reserve.

"He's kind of endeared in our legacy," she said. "He's still a part of the Army Reserve."

Matt Maupin, who graduated from Glen Este High School in 2001, joined the Army Reserve to help pay for his college education at the University of Cincinnati. In 2004, when he was 20-years-old, he was captured by Iraqi insurgents who ambushed his convoy.

A week later, the Arab television network Al-Jazeera aired video showing Matt Maupin sitting on a floor surrounded by masked men armed with rifles.

For the next four years, Matt Maupin's parents -- Keith and his mother, Carolyn -- waited for news of their son, lobbying military officials to keep looking for him and hoping he would be found alive. But on March 30, 2008, an Army general delivered the devastating news that Matt Maupin's remains had been found.

Before learning of their son's death, the Maupin family started the Yellow Ribbon Support Center. Initially geared toward keeping the search for Matt Maupin going, the center sent care packages to soldiers plastered with Matt Maupin's photograph, hoping someone might come forward with information about his whereabouts.

The center now sends care packages to soldiers around the globe. And a separate organization, the Let Us Never Forget Scholarship Fund, has provided more than $400,000 in scholarships to high school seniors in Greater Cincinnati. Each scholarship is awarded in the name of a local soldier killed in Iraq or Afghanistan.

The memorial honoring the Army Reserves at the Pentagon.

On Tuesday, Matt Maupin's place in the Pentagon hallway came as part of an effort by the military to highlight the role of the Army Reserve in the nation's defense. Keith Maupin was on hand to help cut the ribbon on the newly decorated corridor -- one of 17 miles of hallway inside the gargantuan complex.

In his opening remarks, Chief of the Army Reserve Lt. Gen. Jeffrey W. Talley thanked Keith Maupin for attending and said his son "gave his all in service to our nation."

Tally noted that all around the Pentagon, the corridors are decorated with portraits of presidents, generals, and other leaders, along with histories of every war since 1812.

"But until today, there was no space that honored more than a century of service the Army Reserve has provided," he said.

With photographs, artifacts and interactive displays, the new hallway documents the history of the Army Reserve, from its formation in 1908 as a medical service corps to its current role in combat and other operations across the globe.

"It tells you who we are. It tells you what we do," Tally said. "It's a special place."

A very special place for Keith Maupin.

He said Army officials called him about a week ago and told him about the new dedication, inviting him to attend. He said he wasn't even sure if or how his son would be included until he saw the display case Tuesday.

"That boy put a face on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars," Keith Maupin said. "I was glad that the Army never forgot Matt. To me, that was what it was all about."