Thousands honor slain reservist

CINCINNATI – Military workers and supporters from across the country joined in memorials Sunday for a slain Army reservist.

Officials estimated that about 10,000 people walked past Staff Sgt. Matt Maupin’s casket during a weekend visitation at a civic center in Clermont County, east of Cincinnati, where he grew up. Another 4,000 headed Sunday to Great American Ball Park, home of the Cincinnati Reds, for an afternoon memorial service billed as a celebration.

“Matt Maupin was the all-American kid,” said retired Lt. Gen. James Campbell, representing the Army at the service. “

Maupin’s remains were found in Iraq last month, nearly four years after he was captured when his fuel convoy was attacked near Baghdad on April 9, 2004. He became the face of the war for many Americans after the Arab television network Al-Jazeera aired a videotape in April 2004 showing him wearing camouflage and a floppy desert hat, sitting on a floor surrounded by five masked men holding automatic rifles.