National Alliance of Families
For the Return of Americas Missing Servicemen
World War II Korea Cold War Vietnam Gulf Wars
April 19, 2008
Bits N Pieces
"I told them when we'd go up to the Pentagon,
whether he walks off a plane or is carried off,
you're not going to leave him in Iraq like you did those guys in Vietnam."
Keith Maupin as quoted by the Associated Press March 31, 2007
Services for Sgt. Matt Maupin - The remains of Sgt. Matt Maupin will arrive at Lunken Airport in Cincinnati Ohio, on Saturday April 26th. A procession will escort Sgt. Maupin to the Union Township Civic Center located at 4350 Aicholtz Road, Cincinnati Ohio. Public visitation will begin at 11:00 AM and end at 7:00 AM Sunday April 27th.
A memorial service beginning at 1:00 PM will be held at the Great American Ball Park located at 201 E. Pete Rose Way, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202. A private burial service, at Gate of Heaven Cemetery, will follow the memorial service.
To check for any changed to this schedule visit
http://www.visitclermontohio.com/mattmemorial.html
Our hearts and prayers are with the Maupin family. Those wishing to extend their sympathy may send condolences to:
Carolyn and Keith Maupin & Family
c/o The Yellow Ribbon Support Center
700 S Eastgate Blvd. Suite 430
Cincinnati Ohio 45245
What Happened to Matt Maupin - On Thursday April 17th, Pentagon officials briefed the family of Sgt Matt Maupin. In an article for The Enquirer posted at Cincinnati.com Malia Rulon, writes;
Keith Maupin said that Pentagon officials told them Thursday that they would have to get a final report from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner on exactly how and when their son died. I was given the impression that they believe it was very early on," Maupin said. He said Pentagon officials told them that the June 2004 video released on an Arab television station showing a person in a U.S. military uniform being shot to death "might well have been Matt, but we don't know for sure."
The Army Medical Examiner's Office in Maryland has had Sgt. Maupin's remains for more than two weeks. They have been doing forensic tests to determine when and how he was killed. Keith Maupin said they have been told that "because of all the time that's gone by and the harsh conditions over there, there wasn't a lot of Matt left for them to examine." The Maupins will get the report when it's finished.
In the same article Rulon reported; Two of the Iraqis identified as being responsible for kidnapping and killing Staff Sgt. Matt Maupin four years ago have been sentenced to death - though not for Maupin's death, Army officials told the soldier's parents Thursday.
The article also stated that Keith Maupin stated the Army paid a $200,000 reward for the tip that led to his sons recovery. However The Army did not comment on the reward.
A Very Impressive 268 That is the current number of co-sponsors for H.Res 111.
Unfortunately, we are still stuck in the Rules Committee. Please DO NOT give up. Keep the pressure on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rules Committee Chairperson Louise McIntosh-Slaughter.
Send a fax to:
Honorable Nancy Pelosi Tel: 202-225-0100 or Toll Free at 866-727-4894
Office of the Speaker Fax: 202-225-8259
H-232, US Capitol 202-225-4188
Washington, DC 20515
And dont forget Rules Committee Chairperson
Honorable Louise McIntosh-Slaughter
2469 Rayburn Bldg
Tel: 202-225-3615 or Toll Free at 866-727-4894
Washington D.C. 20515 Fax: 202-225-7822
Remind them that that H.Res 111 enjoys overwhelming bi-partisan support. With 268 Co-Sponsors passage of H.Res 111 is clearly the will of the people.
Not sure if your Congressional Representative is a cosponsor, visit www.nationalalliance.org/legis/110congress.htm If your Representative is highlighted in red, he/she is a cosponsor. And, remember if your Congressional Representative is not a cosponsor, keep working on them!
Status of PWs in South Vietnam We recently located an interesting memo. Both the recipient and sender are redacted. However, the content of the memo, dated November 13, 1969 is basically un-redacted. We found this memo interesting because it acknowledges the possibility that POW camps abandoned in South Vietnam may have been re-activated. Unfortunately, as the memo indicates abandoned facilities were not carried as detention facilities.
This concept of re-activating a once abandoned camp is one possibility DPMO refused to consider in the case of Army Captain John T. McDonnell (Vessey 119 Discrepency Case, Project X and one of the 19 New POWs.) According to the memo;
The MACV Joint Prisoner Recovery Center investigates on the ground all credible reports of detention sites in South Vietnam. In some cases evidence of hastily evacuated prison cages have been found and in one case a fatally wounded American soldier was recovered. These sites investigated on the ground by JPRC are usually left in an unusable state and are not afterwards carried as detention facilities. In some cases the sites may in fact have been re-used, but this is problematical. There are also reported sites in Cambodia and Laos. There is little point in attempting to summarize this information, since interrogation of released and escaped prisoner indicates that the VC move the captives from camp to camp as the tactical situation demands.
The memo also discussed a no bomb area assigned to one detention facility a cave in Laos. We can only assume that strong intelligence reporting indicated this cave was a detention facility for American POWs in Laos in 1969.
To view the full document, visit the Vietnam section of our website at
www.nationalalliance.org
Government Acknowledges Mis-Identification of World War II Airman - The POW/MIA bunch (Joint POW-MIA Accounting Command, or JPAC) gave it all their spin - and boy, can they spin it. They're better than Bill O'Reilly." Those are the words of Mary Roberts, sister of World War II airman Wesley Stuart.
In the March 15th edition of Bits we reported how one World War II family exhumed and tested remains returned to them in the late 1940s after the Bent Prop Project, a private group researching World War II aircraft losses, located Stuarts aircraft with remains inside. This information was provided to the U.S. government but no action was forthcoming.
So, Mary Roberts took matters into her own hands, exhuming and paying for private mt-DNA testing. The test confirmed the families long held suspicions that the remains were not those of Wesley Stuart.
On April 17th the Recorder published a follow up to this story, written by Michael Fitzgerald. Excerpts from his story follow:
[Begin Story] "They wanted me to go away. Trust me," said Roberts, a Stockton bar owner. "But
I didn't. They don't know Irish people. Irish people are persistent."
This latest twist in the story of Wesley Stuart involves an admiral's apology, an honor guard and Stuart's hope that, far away on a tiny coral island in the Pacific, recently discovered remains may really be those of her beloved brother.
On Sept. 13, 1944, Wesley Raymond Stuart, a lanky, 6-foot-1, blue-eyed, fun-loving cowboy, who rode bucking broncos in Oakdale rodeos, who played guitar and sang, flew off the deck of the carrier U.S.S Enterprise, bound for the island of Peleliu. Stuart, 20, a turret gunner in a three-man Avenger light bomber, never returned.
Civilian searchers with the Bent Prop Project found his plane's wreckage in 2005. They conjecture Stuart's Avenger, crossing over the island's shore, took a direct hit from intense Japanese anti-aircraft fire. Its bomb and gas tank exploded.
Four long years passed, and the war was over, when the Navy notified the family Stuart's remains - skeletal fragments - had been recovered. To the Stuarts, the delay in identifying Wesley's remains, and the thin evidence on which identification was based, raised doubts. Stuart's mother disbelieved.
"How she knew that, I don't know," Roberts confessed. "Mother's intuition. Something." But the family interred the remains. "My mother took good care of him. She said, 'It's not my son. But it's someone's son.'"
Roberts grew up with the doubt. Long after her parents died, when forensic DNA technology evolved, she asked the Navy to test the remains. The Navy refused.
"The POW/MIA bunch (Joint POW-MIA Accounting Command, or JPAC) gave it all their spin - and boy, can they spin it. They're better than Bill O'Reilly," Roberts said.
When Stuart's plane was found in 2005, human remains were found beneath the fuselage. "I thought, 'I have to find out. I have to know,' Roberts recalled. So she hired an attorney to handle the legalities of disinterment and sent remains from the mausoleum to a lab in Pennsylvania along with a sample of her DNA.
The specialist called her personally. "I didn't want your attorney to call you and tell you," she told Roberts. "The DNA didn't match." Roberts said she notified the Navy, which changed its tune. "No more spin. They came down to earth. ... Let me tell you, it really shook them up."
An official from JPAC promised a letter of apology, signed by an admiral, Roberts said. The Navy is sending an honor guard and "high-ranking official" to Park View Cemetery for a formal disinterment ceremony on April 23.
The unknown soldier will be transported to Honolulu , where experts will try to match the remains to the military's database of MIAs.
Roberts wonders if the remains beneath the fuselage are her brother's. She hopes JPAC will investigate. But there's another possibility: Could the Navy have mixed up the other two crewmen, sending Wesley's remains to the family of the airman who long rested in French Camp? [End Story]
Question Ms. Roberts had to hire an attorney, pay for exhumation, and mt-DNA testing at her personal expense ($11,000) to proved remains returned as her brother where not his, shouldnt the government repay her expenses?
Why does Johnie Webb still have his job?
National Alliance of Families 19th Annual Forum is scheduled for June 19th 21st, 2008. Our forum is conducted to coincide with the Government s annual Vietnam POW/MIA Family Briefings. We urge all family members to attend this years government briefing. The government will provide free airfare to two family members to attend the government briefings. There is no charge or registration fee to attend these briefings and you DO NOT have to belong to an organization to attend the government briefings.
This year our meeting will be held at the Holiday Inn National Airport, located at 2650 Jefferson Davis Highway Crystal City, VA. The special Alliance rate is $129.00 per night, plus tax. Parking rate under the Alliance is $10.00 per night. Cutoff date for reservations is May 20th so make your reservations early. There will be no extension on this date. To reserve your room, call 1-703-684-7200.
The Alliance is an all volunteer organization. Our meetings are open to all, without charge. At this time of year, we actively seek contributions to finance our forum. If you wish to contribute, donations may be mailed to:
National Alliance of Families
P.O. Box 40327
Bellevue, WA . 98015
Remember all contributions are tax deductible.
Dolores Alfond --- 425-881-1499
Lynn OShea ------ 718-846-4350
Web Site -- www.nationalalliance.org
Email ------ lynn@nationalalliance.org