Missing Soldier's Case To Be Reviewed
USA TODAY
April 5, 2005
BATAVIA, Ohio - Each morning before she leaves for work, Carolyn Maupin says a prayer that someone will find or rescue her son Matt, the only U.S. soldier classified as a captive in Iraq and unaccounted for.
Now she has another wish -- that the Army will continue to believe he is alive.
On Wednesday, almost exactly a year after Spc. Matt Maupin disappeared, the Army is scheduled to convene a panel to decide whether he should remain classified as a captive or be considered dead.
"We don't want him to be forgotten," Carolyn Maupin said. "I am just afraid that if they move on, then what will we say when he shows up alive and we aren't there waiting for him?"
Top Army officials said Maupin has not been forgotten.
"We continue to look for Spc. Maupin, but we cannot provide any further details about those efforts," said Lt. Col. Pamela Hart, an Army spokeswoman.
Still, the law requires the Army to re-examine his case after a year, and a panel of officers will meet in Washington to review evidence linked to Maupin's disappearance.
They will decide whether to reclassify him as "deceased, body not recovered."
If reclassified, he would join 1,531 other servicemembers who have died in the war in Iraq.
Maupin, who joined the Reserve in 2003, was captured April 9, 2004, after a firefight with Iraqi insurgents that killed two other soldiers from his platoon.
He was later shown as a hostage in a video broadcast on an Arabic-language news channel.
Thousands of well-wishers have written or called his family.
In February, when the 724th Transportation Company out of Bartonville, Ill., his Reserve unit, came home, it did so without Maupin. That doesn't mean the Army will give up on him in Wednesday's meeting, said Sgt. Mike Bailey, 49, a member of the unit who said he got to know Maupin fairly well.
"I am an old Ranger, and we don't leave a soldier behind," Bailey said. "I don't think the Army will, either."
If the Army decides that Maupin is dead, it may be in part because of a second video that was shown on Arab television in June. That video purports to be footage of Maupin's execution, and it shows a uniformed figure with his back to the camera fall into a shallow grave.
"It just doesn't look like Matt," Carolyn Maupin said. "In my heart, I just knew it wasn't him. I still believe he is alive and out there somewhere."
Rob Lindley, a friend of Maupin's since sixth grade, said he is not surprised Maupin's disappearance has drawn so much attention.
"Matt gave a face to the war," Lindley said. "You can see him there in that video, you can empathize with him. He could be anybody's son, anybody's best friend."
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