After nearly four years of hoping, waiting and praying, an Ohio family learned Sunday their missing son died in Iraq.
"It hurts -- it really hurts. You go through four years of hope," said Carolyn Maupin, whose son, Staff Sgt. Keith Matthew Maupin, was captured by insurgents in April 2004.
"It's like a letdown to me. I'm trying to get through that right now."
His father, Keith Maupin, said military officials informed the family Sunday afternoon that the remains of the 24-year-old Army reservist had been identified.
"Every parent knows the possibility exists that they may have to face the death of their child when they volunteer to go to war," he said. "However, those who are fortunate make peace with that and support their soldier, because they enlisted at their own free will."
A Defense Department official also confirmed the identification, saying Maupin's remains were found last week but DNA results just came in.
Maupin, who was 20 at the time of his capture, and another soldier, Sgt. Elmer Krause, 40, were captured by insurgents April 9, 2004, after their convoy came under attack near Baghdad International Airport. A week later, Maupin was shown on a videotape, surrounded by several armed masked men.
"My name is Keith Matthew Maupin," he stated in the video. "I am a soldier from the First Division. I am married with a 10-month-old child. I came to liberate Iraq, but I did not come willingly because I wanted to stay with my child."
Krause's body was found two weeks later.
Later that summer, Al-Jazeera aired a videotape purportedly showing the execution of Maupin, but U.S. officials haven't confirmed the identity of the person on the tape.
Welcome home. I'm sad to see you come home this way, but it's better then not knowing.
That'd being said, what do we know about his captors? What became of them? I want their hides hung on a wall.
Where's Code Pink? Where's Daily Kos? Where's liberals in general? When are we going to be hearing from them in this violation of the Geneva Conventions? Oh that's right. They'll be appeasing and making excuses for this.
Al-Jazeera has no problems splashing this across their airwaves, but they will censor anti-Islamic militant materials.
You can bet your bottom dollar that if Sergeant Maupin's captors are ever found, they will not be heard from again.
THEN we'll hear from the liberals about the violation of the Geneva Conventions.
Travis
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