Maupin, Matt
Matt Maupin
US Army
The Good Friday Ambush 2004 was an attack by Iraqi insurgents. On April 9, 2004, during the Iraq War, a convoy of American supply trucks was ambushed near Baghdad International Airport. It occurred in the midst of the Iraq spring fight; which saw intensified clashes throughout the country. Matt Maupin was the first American solider missing in action during the Iraq War.
His captors released a video showing the young man surrounded by armed insurgents. A few months later another video appeared showing Matt being killed.
For 4 years, Matt’s father Keith and mother Carolyn had held on to hope that their son would return alive.
Keith Maupin made many trips to Washington D.C. for briefings; Keith warned them that they would not leave Matt in Iraq as they did the Vietnam troops.
In 2006, a scholarship fundraiser was started to make sure everyone remembered Matt & our fallen. It honors all the fallen from Cincinnati Tri State; scholarships are given to schools they attended.
After attending the Never Let Us Forget Scholarship Fundraiser in Cincinnati, Ohio, Carol Pingelski Hotaling returned to New York and started the New York State Yellow Ribbon Day on Matt’s date of capture; to remember those troops currently serving. It is held in Halfmoon, NY.
Then in 2008 word came they had found his remains. After his death was confirmed in March; an interstate in his native Clermont County, Ohio was officially renamed Staff Sgt. Matt Maupin Memorial Freeway.