Capt. Matthew August went to West Point and married another graduate there; on Monday, he will be buried there.

09:57 AM EST on Friday, January 30, 2004

BY PAUL DAVIS
Journal Staff Writer

NORTH KINGSTOWN -- They met -- and married -- at West Point.

At the Church of the Most Holy Trinity, Lt. Maureen Innes clutched a bouquet of white roses against her long gown. Lt. Matthew August, nearly a head taller, wore a black bow tie, a fresh haircut and a dark blue military coat.

But staying together wasn't easy for the West Point graduates.

Matthew, who grew up in North Kingstown, spent time in Korea and Egypt. Maureen went to Nicaragua as part of a hurricane relief effort. They spent their first Christmas apart.

Then, last April, Maureen was deployed with the 1st Armored Division to Baghdad -- "a dangerous area," a worried Matthew told his parents.

Four months later, Matthew was sent to central Iraq, where he served -- some 50 miles from Maureen -- as commander of B Company, 1st Engineer Battalion out of Fort Riley, Kan.

On Tuesday, Matthew was killed by a homemade bomb in a roadside attack in Khaldiyah, 60 miles west of Baghdad. He was 28. The bomb killed three U.S. soldiers and wounded another, military officials said.

Tuesday night, Matthew's mother got a call from her daughter-in-law. Maureen said she was flying back to Dover Air Force Base with the body of their son and the other soldiers killed in the blast.

The couple had hoped to start a family.

"He doted on her," said Matthew's mother, Donna, crying on a couch in her North Kingstown home. "He was very protective of her."

Capt. Matthew J. August was the fourth Rhode Islander killed in Iraq, according to military reports. He will be buried at West Point after a funeral service Monday. Governor Carcieri yesterday ordered the state flag be flown at half-staff to honor August.

Journal photo / Steve Szydlowski SOLDIER'S PARENTS: Richard J. and Donna August, of North Kingstown, talk about their son Matthew, a West Point graduate and Army lieutenant in framed photo at right. Their son Mark, an Air Force captain, is in the framed photo at left.

Matthew's parents won't untie the two yellow ribbons wrapped around birch trees in their front yard. They hung them when Matthew and Maureen went to Iraq.

Once, they kept two candles in an upstairs window.

Only one burns now.

MATTHEW AUGUST hunted deer, hiked rugged trails and played football and soccer.

He got his love for the outdoors from his family. On weekends, his parents, Richard and Donna, would drive the family to a state park for breakfast cooked on a portable grill. Matthew played with his older brother, Mark, and his younger sister, Melanie.

"He just loved to be outdoors, in the woods," said his father, Richard, a credit manager with Fleet Bank in Providence. "He was a great trout fisherman."

Born at Kent County Memorial Hospital, Matthew went to Davisville Middle School, where his mother works. He graduated from Bishop Hendricken High School in Warwick in 1993.

His brother, Mark, graduated from the all-male Catholic school earlier, and joined the Air Force. Matthew chose the Army "because he wanted to lead soldiers," his father said. "As a boy, he played with G.I. Joe."

At West Point, Matthew met a young cadet, Maureen Elizabeth Innes, the daughter of a retired colonel, an "Army brat" who had been around the world. They got married in 1998 and honeymooned in the Caribbean.

After Matthew joined the Army, Richard wrote his platoon sergeant at Fort Benning in Georgia. He wanted to know how his son was doing.

"Matt is definitely the best officer that I have had the opportunity to work with in 19 years in the Army," replied Sgt. Jay R. Chappell, in a letter Richard later framed.

"Matt looks at everything with a common-sense approach. I really don't know what is going to happen when he leaves. I know that the whole battalion will feel the loss."

At Bishop Hendricken, students and officials yesterday felt that loss. They placed a photo of Matthew on an easel in the center of the school, and lit a candle in his memory.

Many of the students did not know Matthew, who left the school a decade ago.

"But they are stopping. They still feel a connection," said Assistant Principal Vincent Mancuso, Matthew's freshman basketball coach.

The young man, he said, "was an extraordinary person" who exhibited a number of admirable qualities -- all at once. "He was hard-working, honest, likable and spiritual," Mancuso said. "He was a quiet leader."

A place kicker on the football team, Matthew also joined the track team, the math team and the stock market club.

"Matthew distinguished himself . . . with the most difficult course work," said John Jackson, the school's alumni director. "He was involved in every aspect of the school community."

The school's chaplain, the Rev. Marcel Tiallon, visited the August family Tuesday. And Bishop Hendricken President Brother Thomas Leto spoke with August's father Wednesday morning.

"I told him we would keep him in our prayers," Brother Leto said. "This will be a blow to a lot of people. People thought the world of Matt. It's a shock to the community."

Matthew's former West Point classmates also called yesterday. A teary Donna spoke to all of them.

"You've heard the phrase, band of brothers? West Point is like a family," said Richard.

A week before Matthew was deployed to Iraq, his father joined him in Kansas, to hunt dove with shotguns.

Matthew would not say where he was going. "But by watching the news and following his division, I could pretty much tell where he was," said Richard, who held his breath every time he heard a report about a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq.

"If you go to West Point, you see three words" on the buildings there, he said. "They are duty, honor, country. I think that Matthew believed in those ideals. He knew the risks and dangers involved."

-- With reports from Journal staff writer Michael Corkery and projo.com staff writer Jack Perry

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported the rank of Capt. Matthew August in a subheadline.