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Friday, March 31, 2006
The search for one missing soldier
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeremy Redmon
Cpl. Iain Hammond, 23, of Cornwall, England, (left) and Lance Cpl. David Berry, 23, of Coventry, England, used a radar device in early March to help in the search for Sgt. Keith 'Matt' Maupin, who has been missing since April 9, 2004.
Al Amiryah, Iraq — American military officials have assigned a special team of investigators to search for the remains of a soldier captured nearly two years ago in Iraq, accepting the grim possibility that he is dead.
Based on tips from Iraqi sources and other information, the investigators have searched 74 areas across Iraq for the body of Sgt. Keith “Matt” Maupin.
Since early last year, the team has been concentrating their efforts in the Baghdad area where Maupin was captured and near Fallujah west of the capital. More sites in those two areas are scheduled to be searched.
“We just want to provide some closure for the family back home,” said Sgt. 1st Class James Haftmann, 37, of Charleston, S.C., a member of Multi-National Corps Iraq, a major U.S. military command here.
Maupin has been missing since April 9, 2004, when his supply convoy was attacked near the Baghdad International Airport. The military said nearly 200 insurgents assaulted the convoy with small arms, rocket-propelled grenades and improvised explosive devices. Maupin is the only service member listed as missing since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Last summer, militants released a blurry video they claimed shows Maupin’s shooting death, but the victim’s identity and the video’s validity have not been verified, Haftmann said.
Maupin’s father, Keith, praised Haftmann for his work but said he is “wasting his time.” He said he believes his son is still alive, although he has no facts to support his belief.
“There is no doubt in my mind. I have faith in Matt,” said Keith Maupin, 55, of Cincinnati. “I’m not going to give up on Matt. I told [the military] I will breathe my last breath before I give up on Matt.”
Basrah-based British engineers who specialize in finding and disabling roadside bombs are helping search for Maupin. During a recent hunt south of Fallujah, the British used a radar device to detect disturbed soil as much as 100 feet below the surface. For two days, they dragged the suitcase-shaped contraption across the desert floor while eyeing a computer display for indicators.
“It’s massively important to us. We are all a coalition here. The Americans would do the same for us,” said Lt. Chris Elworthy 26, of the Joint U.K. Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group.
On March 4, the search team detected bones after being led to a hilltop site by an Iraqi source who said the body of a Westerner had been buried there, Haftmann said. The tipster marked the spot with a stone, he added.
After digging up three sites in that area, Haftmann’s team located two sets of remains. Haftmann turned them over to a Marietta-based Marine Reserve unit responsible for retrieving human remains.
The Marines later determined one set of remains is from an infant who appeared to have been wrapped in a white shroud. The other set appeared to have come from an adult male whose remains had been burned.
The Marines shipped the remains back to the United States for identification.
Lance Cpl. Simeon Merid, of College Park said he was proud to participate in the hunt for Maupin.
“It could finally bring closure to the family,” said Merid, 20, who was studying criminal justice at Georgia Perimeter College before he deployed. “They will be able to bury him in his hometown instead of in a foreign country.”
However, a spokesman for the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Washington confirmed in late March that the remains do not belong to Maupin. He declined further comment. A Marine Corps news report said “test results confirmed that several partial sets of remains that were recovered were not American.” If the remains are of Arab descent, they will be returned to the Iraqi government, according to the military.
“The search will continue and at least now we know where he isn’t,” Haftmann wrote in an email. “We still have a few sites that haven’t been exploited that we will visit in the coming months, so we are still hopeful.”
Keith Maupin said the military contacts him once a week about the search for his son. He was glad to learn the Marines and British are helping.
“What is impressive to me is it crosses [military] branches,” Maupin said. “I would like to see everyone of them and say thanks.”
Packing up one last time
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Baghdad, Iraq — One day after Charlie Company completed its last combat patrol, the walls were bare at the unit’s headquarters and soldiers spent the better part of the day stripping their armored vehicles.
• Photos
By Friday morning, the classified military maps of western Baghdad and Abu Ghraib had been taken down and rolled up. Bulletin boards were cleared of countless Army memos and soldiers in the supply section were busy going through inventory in the shipping containers.
Most of the soldiers of the Gainesville-based Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 121st Infantry Regiment, spent hours under the hot sun dismantling the Bradley Fighting Vehicles that had been their home out on the streets of Iraq.
But no one minded the sweat and grime. They were going home.
Reactive armor plates had to be unbolted and readied to hand off to the next Bradley company that will inherit them. The guns were disassembled and cleaned and all the ammunition and radio equipment taken off the vehicles.
The 14 Charlie Company Bradleys will head to Kuwait aboard heavy equipment transportation trucks, where they will be thoroughly cleaned and put on ships back to the United States.
They will eventually end up with another brigade since the Georgia Army National Guard’s 48th Brigade Combat Team will begin transforming to a light infantry unit once the Iraq deployment is over.
Once the Bradleys are gone, Charlie Company soldiers will have to start packing their personal gear. For some, that’s a task that will take days; their trailers are chock full of things accumulated over the last 10 months they have spent at Baghdad’s Camp Liberty. Many plan to sell big-ticket items such as refrigerators, microwaves and television sets.
Charlie Company will be one of the first 48th Brigade units to fly home to Fort Stewart next month. Most of the brigade’s soldiers will be home by mid-May.
