The young man stood in the lobby of the The Herald-Whig editorial department, shifting from feet to feet, a far away look in his eyes.

He said he was from Quincy and served in the 724th Transportation Company. He said he was in Iraq from February 2004 to February 2005. He said he wasn't happy with The Herald-Whig.

"Why didn't you put something in about Matt Maupin?" he said.

Maupin served in the same unit and was from Ohio. His 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. Arab television network Al-Jazeera aired a videotape a few days later showing him wearing camouflage and a floppy desert hat, sitting on a floor surrounded by five masked men holding automatic rifles.

A huge memorial service at Cincinnati's Great American Ball Park took place for Maupin Sunday. (The Herald-Whig did have a wire story in last Sunday's edition.)

The young man said he knew Matt Maupin.

"He was a hero," he said. "People need to know about him."

The 724th Transportation Company is based in Bartonville, but a Quincy detachment is headquartered behind the Burger King on North 36th Street by the Quincy Mall. More than a few of our young men have served in the unit.

The war in Iraq rages on, and we become immune after a while. Quincy is an insulated place at the best of times, and the names and the stories of our boys dying in a desert far away lose impact.

The man doesn't understand it.

"I don't want my name in the paper. I don't want people thinking this is about me," he said. "I just want them to know."

He's back in Quincy now and going to school. He's asked if he saw action when he served, and that faraway look reappears in his eyes.

"Yes," he says, firmly but quietly.

He hands over sheets of paper. It's an account of the ambush Maupin was involved with when he disappeared, he says. It's written by a friend from a nearby town. (You can read it yourself at www.thefinalrollcall.us/stories/ ambush.htm.)

It's unverified, but it's riveting reading.

If you don't think much about our involvement in Iraq, it's required reading. But a warning -- it's graphic. It details the unit hauling fuel from Balad to Baghdad International Airport. The convoy was attacked, and the soldier writes about shooting and killing a young boy who was shooting at him.

He writes about men dying in his arms, about being shot four times, about knowing he was about to die. He writes about the utter chaos and complete depreciation of humanity involved with combat.

The soldier survived his injuries. He has the scars, mental and physical, to prove it.

The young man on our third floor was challenged by a reporter to tell his story. Maybe it's time people know about his experiences, and what's going on in a strange and foreign land so far away.

But the soldier is reluctant. He serves because it's his duty, not so he can brag or carry on about it.

"I'll think about it," he finally says, and he walks down the stairs after thanking the reporter.

What the young man has inadvertently done is provoke thought.

What are we doing over there? When are our boys coming home? These are not just names and faces. These are soldiers who live here, right here, right with us.

Above all, we need to support our troops and let people know about heroes like Matt Maupin.

And the young man who doesn't want his name in the paper.

-- rhart@whig.com/221-3370