Dayton Daily News
UNION TWP., Clermont county | Carolyn and Keith Maupin beamed with pride Wednesday morning as the 100,000th flier bearing a photo of their son, Sgt. Keith "Matt" Maupin, the U.S. military's only soldier listed as captured in Iraq, fell into their hands from a printer.
Applause followed a resounding "There it is!" from friends and supporters gathered at Sam's Club in the Eastgate shopping plaza in Union Twp., Clermont County. The fliers are sent to Americans on active duty in Iraq and distributed across the United States. They include information about Maupin, a U.S. Army reservist missing since April 2004 when Iraqi insurgents ambushed his Cincinnati-based unit during a convoy near Baghdad. People are asked to place the fliers in their Bible or other holy book and to pray for Maupin's safe return.
Afterward the ceremony Wednesday morning, everyone signed the back of the photo, which will be displayed at the Yellow Ribbon Support Center, just down the street.
"It was a good day and it was a bad day," said Carolyn Maupin. "I'd rather have Matt than a picture."
It's been a rough week, she said, during which an Army task force unit spent three days searching for Maupin following a tip that he may be buried in a brush area outside Baghdad.
Officials said evidence was collected and sent to a lab in Delaware.
"But to know there's 100,000 prayers out there for Matt, I just know we're going to pray him home."
On Thursday, the Maupins head to the Pentagon to meet with U.S. military officials about the search for their son.
A comment from a veteran I know online:
Keith, Carolyn, and Matt Maupin deserve better than they are getting. The
Veterans and their families are treated like whores when the veteran becomes
POW/MIA. Used up, nice words for then and left when they have served the
purpose.
It is the same thing we saw in past wars when someone was POW/MIA. Nothing
has changed from past wars except the country we are in. We must learn from
history and stop using our veterans and forgetting them. They and their
families deserve some respect and they sure are not getting it.