Courtesy Photo | Leaders of Company B, 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment "Gimlet," 2nd Striker...... read more read more
By Staff Sgt. Brock Jones
MND-B PAO
CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq – A plaque made of reddish-hued Hawaiian Koa wood, engraved with the face of Staff Sgt. Matt Maupin and adorned with a silver T-shaped Gimlet stick, now hangs in the narrow hallway of the headquarters of 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment "Gimlet."
Maupin, a U.S. Soldier missing in Iraq since 2004, whose remains were found during an operation headed by the 21st Inf. Regt. in March, was recently made an Honorary Gimlet by the regiment following a four-year long search involving many units. Maupin and the Soldiers of 1st Bn., 21st Inf. Regt., 2nd Striker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Multi-National Division – Baghdad, will forever share a piece of common history.
The series of events that culminated with the hanging of the plaque began in April 2004, when Maupin's convoy was ambushed north of Baghdad.
"[2004] was a different time, obviously, in Iraq," said Lt. Col. Mario Diaz, a native of Sierra Madre, Calif., who serves as commander of 1st Bn., 21st Inf. Regt., 2nd SBCT, 25th Inf. Div. "It was very contentious to go out and conduct operations."
"Staff Sgt. Maupin's unit was a transportation unit. They were conducting a convoy and during that operation ... their convoy was attacked, a pretty significant ambush, along an extended portion of one of the main supply routes right in front of the Baghdad international airport area," said Diaz.
Following the ambush, it was determined that Maupin had been captured by the attackers.
From the day Maupin went missing, an ongoing and vigorous search mission was passed down to each successive unit assigned the operational responsibility of the northern Baghdad and Abu Ghraib areas – the area from which Maupin went missing.
Early in 2008, as 1st Bn., 21st Inf. Regt. took over operations from the departing unit, they were given the enduring task of searching for Maupin alongside their day-to-day operations, working with the special task force that had been established to search for all missing U.S. personnel in Iraq.
"Over the years, there was an extensive search operation, both immediately after the event but also ongoing from the services," said Diaz. "There was also this specialized task force that was composed of a lot of different people working a lot of different things combining intelligence, interrogation reports, analysts that looked at videos, voices, everything," said Diaz. "All the things you'd want to think that we can do as a country and as a military, all the CSI stuff that you see, they were really doing and they were doing it in a manner that at certain points became information that we had to act on."
During Operation Trojan Honor II, named by Diaz in honor of Maupin's high school mascot, viable information came to light pertaining to Maupin's whereabouts and trickled down to the hands of the leaders and Soldiers of Company B, 1st Bn., 21st Inf. Regt. Acting on gathered intelligence about the whereabouts of a potential American Soldier's remains, the Soldiers of Co. B, along with a group of engineers from 2nd Platoon, 84th Engineer Company, 2nd Striker Cavalry Regiment, out of Vilseck, Germany, moved into an area they hadn't been to before to search for the alleged remains.
"It was a clear day," said Sgt. 1st Class Juan Vargas, a native of Stockton, Calif., who serves as platoon sergeant, 3rd Platoon, Co. B, 1st Bn., 21st Inf. Regt. "For the most part, the area we went in to, we weren't too familiar with. Guys were on their toes. Guys expected the worst. It was something that we really had the steel-eye look on our faces."
Though they didn't come into direct contact with the enemy, getting to the area they needed to search took them longer than expected.
"During the route clearance, [the engineers of 2nd Platoon, 84th Eng. Co.] ran into six improvised-explosive devices, and that slowed up the movement, I think, for about an hour and a half while they reduced that threat," said Capt. Jeffery Higgins, a native of Jacksonville, Fla., who serves as commander of Co. B, 1st Bn., 21st Inf. Regt. "We also ran into an unexploded ordnance. Either someone had thrown it on the side of the road for the Coalition to pick up or it was an IED. I don't know."
"It ended up being a long day, and by the time we got to where to we needed to search, we didn't have a whole lot of time," Higgins said.
In the last area, the Soldiers and leaders of Co. B and of 84th Eng. Co. searched as the sun was falling toward the horizon. They found various indicators that led them to believe they had found the remains of a U.S. Soldier.
"With any human remains, there is the ultimate respect that people have on the ground in recovering those remains," said Vargas. "I think that was one of the main concerns that the platoon had was to [recover the remains] honorably, respectfully."
With all the dignity and respect befitting a fallen comrade, the remains were carefully collected and taken to be forensically tested.
It was not until a few weeks later that the Soldiers, who had been on the ground during the recovery, received confirmation that what they had found was indeed the remains of the man they had set out to find.
"When we left [the search area], we were not 100 percent certain that we had him," said Higgins. "I think we all felt pretty good about it, but no one walked out of there saying it's definitely him. Forensics had to prove it.
"It was within about two weeks after we had conducted the mission that we found out for sure that we found him."
As the confirmation that the remains they had found were indeed Maupin's, the reality was both good and bad news to the Soldiers, who had been on the ground during the actual recovery.
"We were happy to bring him home," said 1st Lt. Taylor McMaster, a native of Portsmouth, N.H., who serves as platoon leader with 2nd Pltn., 84th Eng. Co., 2nd SCR. McMaster's platoon cleared the routes of the IEDs on the way to the search area and, once there, helped with the recovery operation on the ground.
"It felt good to know that we had been a part of bringing him home. It brought closure. Obviously it was not a good end, but it was welcome closure," said McMaster.
Finding Maupin's remains, although a sad reality as it finally confirmed his death, served as a welcome victory following a string of setbacks to Co. B and provided them a much-needed boost.
"The month prior [to finding Maupin], we got hit by an IED and the morale was real low. I mean, it was tough," said Vargas. "And then it came up to finding Maupin, and it was just a sense of something good that we had done that just put a fire back into the platoon and, I think, the company."
In the blast suffered by Vargas' platoon, four Soldiers died and six were wounded. Finding Maupin's remains was a bitter-sweet victory for a platoon that had suffered such a devastating blow.
"It was a tangible kind of victory for us. In this environment, there's not a lot of those," said Higgins. "That IED killed four of our Soldiers and wounded six others, who haven't returned to duty yet. We lost 10 guys in one day, and it hit the platoon probably the hardest because that's where they're from, but it really hit the company hard.
"Getting the opportunity to do a mission like this ... was kind of a turning point for the company. After that loss, having the opportunity to go do this really turned the company around and gave us that tangible victory that I think we needed to remind us of what our mission here is for," he said.
The ironic coincidence of a platoon that had recently suffered the loss of 10 of its Soldiers also being the same platoon that was able to find a lost Soldier was something the company could "sink its teeth into," said Diaz.
"[Finding Maupin] was very cathartic in a sense. It was a big win for them," he said.
It was a big win for the Soldiers involved, but finally being able to bring Staff Sgt. Maupin's remains home was a day of gratitude and mourning and relief for the Maupin family, who had suffered through more than four years of not knowing the whereabouts of their son and brother.
"I have spoken with the family through video teleconferences and understand their commitment and what they have done from day one, how they have dealt with this and how they have just really been unbelievable," said Diaz. "I was so impressed."
"They were just very thankful and to me, and I couldn't believe it. Here they are thanking me for something I had the honor to be a part of."
Impressed by the family's commitment and gratitude, Diaz felt the need to return that gratitude. He told the family that his unit has a very visible symbol that represents them called the Gimlet Stick that they are awarded and get to wear as part of their uniform – one of the few such items recognized by the Army. He then told them about his desire to make their son an Honorary Gimlet.
"I said that it's a very significant thing, at least for us, and on a few occasions in the past there have been honorary Gimlets for guys that used to be in the regiment who did something else or who had some interaction with [the regiment]. I said 'I've decided that I am going to offer and induct Staff Sgt. Maupin in the roll of honor as an Honorary Gimlet.' That, I think probably more than anything else, was the most emotional part for them," said Diaz. "That's the time where a couple of tears were shed, and they were very, very thankful."
For those in the Gimlet Regiment, making Maupin a part of their brotherhood as an Honorary Gimlet was a fitting gesture of their connection and their newly created common ground.
"I think it's just a good way of saying you're not forgotten, and you're our brother, and we won't forget the sacrifice you gave to the country and the Army," said Sgt. Kristoffer Price, a native of Logan, Utah, who serves as a team leader with 3rd Pltn., Co. B, 1st Bn., 21st Inf. Regt., about Maupin's induction. Price's team was on the scene when Maupin was found.
"It also builds a common history for people in the unit," said Capt. Joseph Loar, a native of Tiffen, Ohio, who was serving as platoon leader of 3rd Pltn., Co. B, at the time of Maupin's discovery. "[Making Maupin an Honorary Gimlet] is a big thing, and a lot of people put a lot of effort into it to be able to attach ourselves to that in a meaningful way. It builds esprit de corps, not just for my platoon, but for the whole regiment."
The web of events that brought together an unlikely group of infantrymen, engineers, a fallen Solider and his Family are hard to fully comprehend. What isn't hard to understand is the significance of this one successful mission and the impact it has had on all involved.
"We do some important things every day still, but what we did here is something that's probably going to define our deployment. It's going to define, for a period of time, leaders and the Soldiers in the unit," said Diaz. "It demonstrates some true American values, some Army values, the Warrior Ethos about never leaving a fallen Soldier, never leaving a comrade behind."
Mabel Clare Craft wrote that Hawaiian Koa wood was the "mahogany of the Pacific, the 'royal tree,' fit to make you weep." In looking at Staff Sgt. Maupin's face carved into the plaque made of Koa, his name engraved on the shiny Gimlet stick and knowing the events that led to bringing him home to his Family, one cannot help but think that this particular piece of Koa wood is certainly "fit to make you weep" and was the perfect choice for such a moment – "royal" wood fit for a king and for a Soldier finally gone home.
| Date Taken: | 11.08.2008 |
| Date Posted: | 11.08.2008 14:00 |
| Story ID: | 26106 |
| Location: | BAGHDAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 695 |
| Downloads: | 273 |
This work, Once-missing Soldier inducted into 'Gimlet' brotherhood: Staff Sgt. Matt Maupin recognized, honored by the Soldiers who helped bring him home, by MSG Brock Jones, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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