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I am sure you have all heard of this young man. To be honest I am not sure if this is an old request or a new one. The last I heard a couple months ago they still didnt know what happened to their son so here ya go

My name is Keith Maupin. I am the father of Spc Keith Mattew "Matt" Maupin. Matt was captured in Iraq when his convoy was attacked 9 April 2004. Matt is still being held captive and has been the only soldier being held this long since the Vietnam war. We would ask you to not only help spread the word about Matt and don't let anyone forget him or forget anyone keeping our freedom We have sent over 1600 boxes to Soldier and Marines all over the middle east. We have sent boxes to Africa to soldiers guarding the pipe line there. We (you and I) owe all military personnel our support. You and I would not have the freedom we have today if not for the ones that have served. All gave some and some gave all. We have to let them know that we support them 110 %.

I am sure that the military is doing most of what they can do to find Matt. Matt's unit will be coming home the end of this February. It is going to be a joyful and sad time for us. I am happy that his fellow soldiers are coming home but at the same time we are sad that Matt may not be with them. We will support them because they have done their duty as soldiers and completed their mission and deserve the right to come home. I have come to learn that one of their warriors etho is, "We will not leave a fallen commrade behind." This does not mean that the unit the soldier is assigned to is leaving him behind. It means that our government as a whole will not leave a fallen commrade behind. I for one will not let them forget. There are people looking for Matt all the time. I believe this.

I didnt post the first part of this letter because I didnt want it to appear I was soliciting anything but this is the other part of the letter from my friend. I thought I would sit on this until I saw some response so here ya go. I think its a good thing and if it helps...

I think I had another link to Mr Maupin let me see if I can find it

"I asked him about what I thought was yellow ribbon magnets that they had and I do have it mixed up. He corrected me with what is available and here is his post in total:

You have it a little mixed up Robbin. We sell the car magnets and window clings. We have pictures of Matt in sleeves with pins on them. We don't have magnets with Matt's picture on them. We have magnets with Matt's name($5.00) and T-shirts ($10.00) with Matt's picture on them. All the people at the Yellow Ribbon Support Center are volunteers. No one makes a dime for their services. We do it because we all the soldiers to know they are supporter and appreciated every day. The postage for the packages we send is paid for by donations, selling magnet ribbons lapel pins and T-shirts. We are also working on sending 100 computers to Iraq for the soldiers to use to write and receive emails for friends and families. 25 of the computers will have cams on them. 25 more will have a variable card reader for storage of emails, pictures and personal files. "

Here is the website www.yellowribbonsupportcenter.com

By Carl Quintanilla

Correspondent

NBC News

Updated: 8:26 p.m. ET Feb. 25, 2005BATAVIA, Ohio - The yellow ribbons in this small Cincinnati suburb look like those hung in hundreds of U.S. cities, mourning the loss of hometown soldiers. But Batavia's are different.

They're memorials to Spc. Matt Maupin, a soldier with the Army Reserve's 724th Transportation Company and the only soldier still unaccounted for in the war in Iraq. Of the 10,000 soldiers wounded and the 1,500 killed, his fate is the only one still unknown.

Maupin's unit of roughly 160 soldiers returned home this week, landing at a cold and blustery airfield in Wisconsin. Soldiers met teary-eyed families and celebrated with a dinner Friday night — grateful to be home, but remembering the colleague they left behind.

"We left a part of us over there," said Liz Marie Duarte, a soldier from Carpentersville, Ill. "Hopefully we'll get it back soon."

Meanwhile, Maupin's parents, Carolyn and Keith, face a challenge unlike that of any military family in the United States — grieving for their son, but somehow, trying to sustain awareness of his case, knowing he may still be alive, somewhere.

"We're not going to give up," said Carolyn, a school bus dispatcher. "Until they show us something that proves one thing or the other, no, we're not."

A grainy videotape

The 21-year-old was last seen in April, when his fuel-tanker convoy was attacked just west of Baghdad in what Army officials still call the largest single attack by Iraqi insurgents.

Days later, he showed up in a tape broadcast on the Al-Jazeera network showing him held hostage.

"My name is Keith Matthew Maupin," he said, as his captors held guns nearby, demanding the United States release detainees in exchange for the soldier. Pentagon officials refused.

In June, a second tape — dark and grainy — showed an image of a U.S. soldier being shot in the head. Insurgents claimed it was Maupin, but the Pentagon remains unconvinced. Military officials say the tape is inconclusive and did not shed any light on what happened to Maupin because the identity of the individual being shot is unclear.

Maupin is still listed as "captured" but isn't a POW because it's not known where he is being held or who his captors are. Officials say he is not being held by an entity that is a party to the Geneva Conventions. Army officials say until there is conclusive evidence, they have no intention of declaring Maupin dead.

Waiting at home

In Batavia, Maupin's presence is everywhere: On restaurant signs, on makeshift memorials on chain-link fences.

A local radio station airs an hourly radio reminder: "JOINING YOU WITH ALL OUR PRAYERS FOR MATT MAUPIN."

At the American Legion Post 72, where Maupin was a member, a table setting still waits for him at the club room, his glass upside down in his honor.

"Matt's going to have his homecoming day here," said Ron Hartman, commander. "Matt's probably still out there workin', you know, saying, 'You guys go on back home, I'm going to stay over here and finish the job.'"

Everyone seems to remember the quiet but athletic 6-foot-2 soldier, who enlisted in the Army Reserves to save money for college.

At the local Sam's Club, where he once stocked shelves, he's still on the payroll.

"Quiet kid, but had some of the qualities we look for," said Mitch Cohen, the store manager who hired him. "Even at a young age, he knew he wanted to go to school, which is a big thing."

Sustaining hope

Despite their ordeal, Maupin's parents remain supporters of President Bush, like many in this largely conservative part of Ohio. They've started a volunteer center, sending care packages to soldiers, along with a picture of Maupin, asking for those still stationed in Iraq to keep an eye out for him.

A letter to soldiers reads: "Hi. These are pictures of our captured soldier Spc. Keith Matt Maupin. Please help us find him."

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Rob Portman will travel to Iraq this weekend, possibly visiting Baghdad and Fallujah.

Spokesman Kyle Downey said many details of the trip are secret for security reasons. But the Terrace Park Republican leaves Friday and returns Monday.

"I look forward to meeting with the troops and expressing my personal gratitude for their hard work and many successes," Portman said in a statement. "I will also be assessing the situation on the ground after the historic Iraqi elections and making sure the troops have what they need to continue to fight the war on terror."

This is Portman's first trip to Iraq, Downey said.

He'll be traveling with a four-man delegation, stopping at a military hospital in Germany to visit wounded troops, delivering mail from Ohio students to soldiers and bringing candy bars from Graeter's.

He expects to meet with military officials to talk about the case of missing Army Spc. Matt Maupin, of Union Township. The Glen Este High School graduate was captured April 9, 2004, in Iraq .

Maupin's unit, the Bartonville, Ill.-based 724th Transportation Company, returned from Iraq this week. Portman met with the Maupin family Friday, Downey said.

Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell and Ohio Sen. Mike DeWine visited Iraq last month. During a meeting with Sunni sheiks, the walls rattled from a nearby mortar round, according to DeWine spokeswoman Amanda Flaig. Rep. Mike Turner, who represents northern Warren County, also visited Iraq last month.

Portman, like the entire tri-state delegation, voted for the resolution giving President Bush authority to use force against Iraq.

"I look forward to meeting with the troops and expressing my personal gratitude for their hard work and many successes. I will also be assessing the situation on the ground after the historic Iraqi elections and making sure the troops have what they need to continue to fight the war on terror."

Rep. Rob Portman

Maupin's unit returns home

Welcome-back ceremony tinged with the sadness of a missing comrade

By Howard Wilkinson

Enquirer staff writer

This member of the U.S. Army Reserve 724th Transportation Company was among those who arrived to hugs from family and friends Friday at Fort McCoy, Wis. Spc. Matt Maupin of Union Township, a member of the unit who was attacked while in a convoy last year, has been listed as missing and presumed captured.

Photos by Glenn Hartong/The Enquirer

Reserve 724th Transportation Company was among those who arrived to hugs from family and friends Friday at Fort McCoy, Wis. Spc. Matt Maupin of Union Township, a member of the unit who was attacked while in a convoy last year, has been listed as missing and presumed captured.

Photos by Glenn Hartong/The Enquirer

FORT McCOY, Wis. - For all the joy Judy Doudera had in her heart Friday afternoon as she watched her soldier son return from a year in Iraq, she could not help but feel sorrow for another soldier's mother.

"Carolyn Maupin is in my prayers every day,'' Doudera said in the middle of hundreds of family members who gathered at a snow-covered Army base here to greet the 724th Transportation Company on its return from Iraq.

As the buses carrying the 724th rolled into the parking lot of the Wisconsin National Guard Training Center, Keith and Carolyn Maupin of Union Township sat inside the hall waiting for the welcome-home ceremony to begin.

Their son, 21-year-old Spc. Matt Maupin, was not among those returning. Since a 724th convoy was attacked by rocket-propelled grenades April 9 near Baghdad, their son has been listed as missing and a presumed captive.

"It's been hard, but it is worth it to come here and see these young men and women who were like family to Matt,'' Keith Maupin said.

They arrived in Wisconsin Wednesday in time to watch the 724th's plane land that day at a nearby Air National Guard airfield.

The Maupins made the 600-mile trip to Fort McCoy, but they tried to stay in the background, saying they did not want to take attention away from the 120 men and women of the 724th who were coming home.

"This is their time,'' Keith Maupin said.

But as they entered the training center Friday afternoon for the ceremony, dozens of family members of the soldiers gathered around the Maupins to give them hugs, shake their hands and offer words of support.

Many reminders

For the soldiers of the 724th, the return was bittersweet; and throughout the two-hour ceremony at Fort McCoy and a welcome-home banquet of buffalo wings and pizza at a nearby hotel, there were constant reminders that not all of them had made it home.

In addition to the large poster of Maupin outside the hall, there were the traditional displays of the fallen soldier - upturned rifles, topped by helmets, with boots at the rifles' base, put there to honor the two soldiers who were killed in the same incident in which Maupin was captured: Spc. Greg Goodrich of the 724th's hometown of Bartonville, Ill., and Sgt. Elmer Krause of Greensboro, N.C.

"It is hard for a lot of us to think that there were comrades who died and one who is yet to come home,'' said Lt. Matt Brown, the leader of Maupin's platoon who was himself seriously wounded in the convoy attack. "But the support this unit has gotten from people all around the country has been tremendous. This is a great country.''

As the families and soldiers began streaming into the Cranberry Country Lodge, 6-foot-5 soldier Jay Russell from Decatur, Ill., ran down the hall, spotting his 5-year-old nephew, Jack. The soldier reached down, grabbed the little boy, and hoisted him up over his head.

"You don't know how glad I am to see you, buddy," Russell said.

But happy as he was to be home, Russell said, there was "more than a little sadness" over his fellow soldier and friend Matt Maupin.

"I love seeing snow on the ground again instead of seeing sand," Russell said. "But I wish Matt were here."

As Russell spoke, Maupin's parents entered the Cranberry Lodge ballroom.

Carolyn Maupin said the thing that touched her the most about their trip to Wisconsin was the many soldiers who talked to her.

"The best part was having these young men and women coming up and saying they were praying for us, for Matt," Carolyn Maupin said. "That touched me so deeply."

Tie a yellow ribbon

During the ceremony, Brig. Gen. Michael Beasley, the commanding officer of Army Reserve troops in the Great Lakes states, told the soldiers and their families of his many trips to Union Township to visit the Maupins.

"Their steadfast hope and compassion and support for the troops has inspired the nation,'' Beasley said. "I ask you all to drive to Cincinnati sometime,'' Beasley said. "Drive through the Maupins' neighborhood. You'll see a yellow ribbon on nearly every tree, lamppost, fence. ... If you stand in one spot for more than five minutes, somebody will tie a yellow ribbon around your leg.''

E-mail hwilkinson@enquirer.com

Spc. Donald "Petey" Peterson Jr. is hugged by his mother, Brenda Peterson, upon his return Friday.

(Photo by The Enquirer/Glenn Hartong)

Staff Sergeant Jesse Thompson gets a hug from his wife Cheryl, daughter Erin 6, and daughter Caitlin 10 (back to camera) 10. They are from Peoria IL.

(Photo by The Enquirer/Glenn Hartong)

At Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, members of the US Army Reserve 724th Transportation Company form up as they prepare to march into their formal return cermony Friday.

(Photo by The Enquirer/Glenn Hartong)

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Carolyn Maupin gets a hug from Erika Werner at the Cranberry Country Lodge Friday night following ceremonies at Fort McCoy for the members of the US Army Reserve 724th Transportation Co.

Carolyn Maupin gets a hug from Vickie Schaub of Wapak, Ohio, at the Cranberry Country Lodge Friday night.

(Photo by The Enquirer/Glenn Hartong