Waiting, praying for a sonÕs return
Ohio soldier disappears in Iraq
By Dan Stockman
The Journal Gazette
The town of Batavia awaits the return of its native son, Matt Maupin, who disappeared more than two years ago in Iraq.
BATAVIA, Ohio Ð The story of Christmas, at heart, is about searching and waiting.
The Israelites were waiting for an end to the Roman occupation of Palestine.
Joseph and his young wife, Mary, Ð wracked with labor pains Ð were desperately searching for shelter in a city of strangers.
The Wise Men were searching for a newborn king. And all the world was waiting for a savior, a Messiah to save us from ourselves.
Christians believe that on this morning 2000 years ago, all of that waiting and searching was on its way to being fulfilled Ð though none of it in the way the searchers expected.
Keith Maupin understands searching and waiting.
On April 9, 2004, his son MattÕs convoy came under fire near Baghdad. Amid the hell and death, Matt disappeared.
No one has seen him since.
A boy goes to war
ÒWhen Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.Ó
Ð Matthew Chapter 2, Verse 3
Army Reservist Matt Maupin was just 20 when he arrived in Iraq with the 724th Transportation Company in March 2004. Just a few weeks later, the convoy his unit was escorting was attacked. When the smoke cleared and the dead and wounded were counted, Matt was missing. A week later, a group of militants released a video of Matt, surrounded by machine-gun-toting radicals.
He was alive but captured, AmericaÕs only MIA soldier in Iraq.
Keith, 56, was fishing with his buddy of 20-some years, Larry Reynolds, when Keith suddenly realized something was wrong.
ÒI told Larry, ÔMan, we need to go,Õ?Ó Keith said. They returned to find an Army major looking for Keith.
ÒI thought he was gonna say heÕd been killed, honestly,Ó Keith said. ÒBut I didnÕt feel that. And I still donÕt.Ó
That gut feeling that Matt was still alive was proved when the major said Matt was missing, and proved again with the video.
But that was more than two years ago, now. And though the Army says it is still searching diligently, Matt has never been found. Not alive. Not dead.
Just gone.
Keith fills the emptiness, the waiting hours, by running the Yellow Ribbon Support Center, a storefront in a nearby strip mall on the outer edges of CincinnatiÕs suburban sprawl. While Matt is somewhere in the desert half a world away, Keith assembles care packages for soldiers, each one with a photo of Matt, hoping someone there will see him.
Keith is a veteran of the Marine Corps and says he never talked to his boys, Matt and Micah, about joining because he didnÕt want them to.
ÒI didnÕt like it,Ó he says now, looking out over the strip mall parking lot, the frontage roads choked with last-minute shoppers. ÒHe went for college money, like 90 percent of Õem do. I think he wanted to do his part. How can you stop Õem?Ó
He couldnÕt stop Matt, and he couldnÕt stop Micah, either, now 21 and a sergeant in the Marines.
The politics of it all Ð should we have gone there? should we leave? should we stay? Ð doesnÕt matter much to Keith. Matt is there. He needs to come home. Everything else is trivia.
HeÕs talked to President Bush seven times. HeÕs talked to the Joint Chiefs. HeÕs talked to generals and commanders. His only question to them is, ÒWhat are you doing to find Matt?Ó
ÒI donÕt have anything against (former Secretary of Defense Donald) Rumsfeld. I think they needed a new set of eyes on (the war) and some new ideas,Ó Keith says between smokes. ÒI feel the same way about Matt. Whatever youÕre doing ainÕt working.Ó
ÔIt wasnÕt going to be goodÕ
ÒAnd she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.Ó
Ð Luke Chapter 2, Verse 7
Keith and Carolyn divorced years ago, but stayed close. He gets quiet when asked how sheÕs doing.
ÒSheÕll be all right,Ó he said finally. ÒSometimes you gotta É I donÕt know.Ó
Both of them had a foreboding about Matt in Iraq.
ÒWe both kinda knew it wasnÕt going to be good for Matt somehow,Ó Keith said. ÒHe had his work cut out for him.Ó
By all accounts, he was up to the task. Six-foot-1 and about 220 pounds, he wears a size 15 boot.
ÒAte like a horse,Ó Keith said.
He loves his boys like any father, but heÕs from the school that a father is a father and not a buddy. You can be buddies later, when theyÕre raised and grown.
ÒI didnÕt want to be his friend, I wanted to be his dad,Ó Keith said. ÒI never felt we needed to be friends.Ó
But that doesnÕt mean they werenÕt close. It doesnÕt mean a piece of him didnÕt go to the desert when Matt did. It doesnÕt mean something wasnÕt ripped out of him watching him on a terroristÕs video.
It comes out in the quiet moments, when there arenÕt care packages to fill Ð though theyÕve shipped thousands of them in the two years. It comes out when there arenÕt pictures to trim and attach with stickers that read ÒPlease place me in your Bible and say a prayer for me. IÕm captured in Iraq, and prayers can set me freeÓ Ð though the SamÕs Club where Matt worked has printed more than 160,000 of them to distribute. It comes out when the phone in the Yellow Ribbon center goes quiet and Larry and Keith look out over the holiday traffic Ð the world just keeps going by while his boy is gone, gone, gone and no one will say where he is.
ÒDuring the holidays you remember when they were youngins, you know?Ó Keith said.
A feeding trough for a throne
ÒNow after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, ÒWhere is he who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East and have come to worship him.Ó
Ð Matthew, Chapter 2, Verses 1 and 2
The Israelites were looking for a king, but found one without an earthly kingdom.
Mary and Joseph were looking for shelter, and found it not inside an inn, but out back with the farm animals. The Wise Men searched the palaces for the newborn king, but found him in a barn. The birth was announced not to rulers or in the streets, but to shepherds. The world looked for a savior to conquer sin, and found one who did it not through power and might, but through the ultimate sacrifice.
Matt was always the strong one. Now the people back home need to be strong for him.
ÒI just hope someoneÕs taking care of him,Ó Keith said. ÒIÕm sure heÕs alive. I just guarantee he ainÕt a happy camper right now.Ó
Still, itÕs been more than two years. No clue. No sign. No body. Nothing.
Batavia, a small southwestern Ohio town , where the Dollar General and Grammas Pizza are framed by the wooded hills, remains bedecked in yellow ribbons. But itÕs been so long. Newsweek and Time donÕt come around so much anymore. The satellite TV trucks have left. But still no Matt.
ÒYou know, as time goes by, it seems like a lot of people who were around at first are not around anymore,Ó Keith said. ÒBut thereÕs always new people coming up. They just want to help support the troops. I donÕt care what youÕre feeling is on the war. Those guys thatÕs there ÉÓ
While Keith fusses in the back with care packages and mailing supplies, Larry takes a smoke break out front. Ask him how Keith is really doing, and there are no words.
There are no words to describe a father whose son has gone missing. Ask any parent who has had a toddler disappear Ð even for a second Ð in a busy mall. There are no words for the way time moves then. There are no words for the chasm that opens up inside, a giant hole in your world while everything rushes by outside that all-encompassing hole.
Finally, Larry offers what we already know about the fishing buddy heÕs watched hit by this unimaginable thing.
ÒItÕs hard,Ó he said. ÒItÕs really hard.Ó
Later, he tries again.
ÒI lost my wife about four years ago,Ó Larry said. ÒSo I kinda know what heÕs going through a little bitÉ It eats at you all right.Ó
Waiting for the wait to end
ÒThen the angel said to them, ÔDo not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a savior, who is Christ the Lord.Õ?Ó
Ð Luke, Chapter 2, Verses 10 and 11
After the video, silence. Although other militant groups in Iraq have bragged about their conquests or made a show of their victims, this group Ð calling itself the Sharp Sword Against the Enemies of God and His Prophet Ð has disappeared with Matt.
No more videos. No demands. No taunts. No body.
Nothing.
ÒItÕs going to take more than a finger or a small bone to tell me Matt is not alive,Ó Keith said.
But there hasnÕt been a finger. ThereÕs been nothing.
ÒI guess I donÕt understand why theyÕve kept him so long without wanting something,Ó Larry said. ÒWhat are they gaining? ItÕs almost like theyÕre keeping him for some special reason, but nobody knows the reason.Ó
A van from local car dealer pulls up to deliver 10 more care packages for the troops. Inside the storefront, the walls are covered with hats, plaques, certificates and thank-yous from those on the receiving end. A back room is filled with supplies for care packages, all of it donated, from coffee to toiletries to DVDs and writing paper. And everywhere is Matt Ð in posters and photos and on poems.
ÒI guess you could sit here and go crazy,Ó Keith said, looking around the storefront. ÒBut that donÕt help neither one of us.Ó
Lately, theyÕve been trying to find someone who speaks Arabic to help them place ads in Iraqi newspapers, hoping they will help find Matt. When heÕs not busy at the support center, Keith said, he thinks about ways to find Matt.
HeÕs talked to members of MattÕs unit, now returned to the safety of home.
ÒThey said Matt never dogged anything,Ó Keith said. ÒHe was a good soldier ÉÓ
When he realizes heÕs spoken of Matt in the past tense, he finishes: ÒÐ when they knew him. Now I hope heÕs a better soldier.Ó
Keith tries not to think too much about that phone call Ð the one he knows is coming someday, the one that has MattÕs voice on the other end, saying heÕs all right, saying heÕs coming home.
ÒI donÕt know that I think about that as much as you look forward to it,Ó Keith said. ÒI have no idea what the hell heÕs going to say. IÕll probably ask him, ÔYou about done with your vacation, Matt?Õ?Ó
Larry and Keith laugh at that. ItÕs all they can do. That and make another care package for another soldier whoÕs stuck in the desert, another soldier who needs to know heÕs not forgotten, and Ð most importantly Ð a soldier who might have seen Matt somewhere.
Perhaps the story of Christmas is not one of searching and waiting after all: ItÕs the end of the wait. ItÕs the finding of what youÕve been looking for, even if itÕs not the way you expected it.
Like Mary waiting to give birth, like strangers from the East looking for a king, like a world waiting for a savior, the Maupin family holds on to hope. Waiting for that sign. Waiting for that call.
Waiting for Matt to come home.
How to help
Yellow Ribbon Support Center
700 S. Eastgate Blvd
Cincinnati OH 45245
513-752-4310
www.yellowribbonsupportcenter.com