Weekend memorials for Ssg. Matt Maupin culminate in public services 1.00 p.m. Sunday at Great American Ball Park in Cincinatti. Parking accomodations for the event and for Saturday's visitation at Union Township Civic Center (22 hours beginning 11:00 a.m.) are published at Cincinatti.com.
Funeral services graveside are family only, according to the Patriot Guard at their forum. Matt will be interred at Gate of Heaven Cemetery, 11000 Montgomery Road should you wish to acknowledge the cortege enroute.
Ssg. Maupin, then 20 and a PFC, was listed missing-captured in action April 16, 2004 when a videotape aired on Al Jezeera television of Matt hunkered before a group of masked insurgents. He had been reported missing the prior week following an attack on a convoy south of Baghdad in which his unit, the Army Reserve's 724th Transportation Company, participated.
For nearly two years the sole MIA in the war, Matt and his fate commanded the concern of many around the nation. From time to time the national media checked in with his family and friends. From such reports, a fuller picture emerges of just who the young man from Batavia, Ohio was and how a family and a community copes with the anguish of separation, the fear of loss and, now, the knowledge of loss.
For Matt's parents, Keith and Carolyn, coping meant doing something tangible for Matt's comrades. They set up the Yellow Ribbon Support Center to gather and send care packages to the troops and to marshal material support for military families. For Matt's brother Micah, it meant re-upping in the Marines. For Cincinnatti native and funk-fusion legend Bootsy Collins it meant composing a cautionary community hymn.
According to the updated entry at the Military Times "Honor the Fallen" site, a tip from a Sunni
Awakening group Northeast of Baghdad led to recovery of Ssg. Maupin's remains by Schofield Barracks boys attached to 2nd Stryker Brigade.
If you're in proximity to Cincinnatti and can attend Sunday, carry our hearts with yours.
Funeral services graveside are family only, according to the Patriot Guard at their forum. Matt will be interred at Gate of Heaven Cemetery, 11000 Montgomery Road should you wish to acknowledge the cortege enroute.
Ssg. Maupin, then 20 and a PFC, was listed missing-captured in action April 16, 2004 when a videotape aired on Al Jezeera television of Matt hunkered before a group of masked insurgents. He had been reported missing the prior week following an attack on a convoy south of Baghdad in which his unit, the Army Reserve's 724th Transportation Company, participated.
For nearly two years the sole MIA in the war, Matt and his fate commanded the concern of many around the nation. From time to time the national media checked in with his family and friends. From such reports, a fuller picture emerges of just who the young man from Batavia, Ohio was and how a family and a community copes with the anguish of separation, the fear of loss and, now, the knowledge of loss.
For Matt's parents, Keith and Carolyn, coping meant doing something tangible for Matt's comrades. They set up the Yellow Ribbon Support Center to gather and send care packages to the troops and to marshal material support for military families. For Matt's brother Micah, it meant re-upping in the Marines. For Cincinnatti native and funk-fusion legend Bootsy Collins it meant composing a cautionary community hymn.
According to the updated entry at the Military Times "Honor the Fallen" site, a tip from a Sunni
Awakening group Northeast of Baghdad led to recovery of Ssg. Maupin's remains by Schofield Barracks boys attached to 2nd Stryker Brigade.
If you're in proximity to Cincinnatti and can attend Sunday, carry our hearts with yours.
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