Re: Keeping the Candle Burning

Date: April 23, 2004

"Local organization concerned for POWs in Iraq

By DANIELLE BANKS 6 News Anchor/Reporter

KNOXVILLE (WATE) -- News of a soldier's capture has shocked many people in East Tennessee. 

Pvt. First Class Keith Matt Maupin has been held hostage since last week when his convoy was ambushed west of Baghdad.

The director of Task Force Omega for Tennessee says more needs to be done to help all captured soldiers.

The task force is a group of concerned Americans who dedicate their lives to see the return to America all prisoners of war and those missing in action.

"I would say they have probably threatened him as much they can humanely threaten him with," said Brad Hieatt, Task Force Omega's state director. "Even so much as saying they would come to America to get his family to learn things about his unit."

Though he's never had to use his POW training, Hieatt knows what Pvt.Maupin has been trained to do. Hieatt served in the Marine Corps from 1969 to 1973.

"Give em' three things," he says. "That's all the Geneva Convention asks for -- name, rank and serial number. You don't have to tell them another thing."


Concerned for family

Still, Hieatt realizes the violence of the conflict and hopes that fate doesn't fall on Pvt. Maupin. He says his heart goes out to the young man's family. "They're all terrified. Not just his family but everybody is terrified this one is going to come home in a box."

Hieatt says people need to do more than pray for hostages like Pvt. Maupin. They need to speak up to their local congressmen and give those POWs a voice so they have a better chance to see American soil.

"Let them come home," Hieatt says. "Let their families rejoice even if they are in body bags. Bits, ashes, bones teeth. And I know that's a pretty cruel thing to say, but at least give their families some resolution that they buried their loved ones at home, not in a foreign country 7000 miles from here."

If you would like to know more about the Task Force Omega and other organizations dedicated to helping POWs, you can visit their website at www.greasyonline.com.


Videotape released

The people who captured Pvt. Maupin and are holding him released a videotape Friday. It shows six men -- four holding rifles and one with a pistol -- standing behind the soldier.

A senior U.S. official says there is no doubt the tape is real.

The captors say the soldier is in good health and being treated as a prisoner according to Islamic law. But they made a demand. They will exchange the soldier for prisoners being held by American forces.

The U.S. is holding thousands of prisoners in Iraq.

No official statement was issued by Pentagon officials, but they made it clear there will be no negotiating.

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