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
