FIRST LIEUTENANT WARREN G. MOXLEY, was born May 2, 1921 in Senath, Missouri. A former member of the Charleston Methodist Church he was a 1938 graduate of Charleston High School. Prior to being commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Army Air Corps on December 5, 1943, he was working as an Investment Field Accountant in Dallas, TX where he was a member of the University Park Methodist Church. He was reported "missing in action" over Rahms, Germany March 15, 1945.

He is now survived by two brothers, Fred Moxley of Cape Girardeau, and Don Moxley of Bertrand; two sisters, Emma Laird of Lady Lake, Florida and Peggy Walker of Memphis, Tennessee; also a number of nieces and nephews.

Since the time of First Lieutenant Moxley's death, his parents, Ernest and Pearl Shown Moxley, two brothers, Prince Moxley and Byron Moxley, and two sisters, Gwen Hearnes and Margaret Farmer have also died.

First Lieutenant Moxley's remains will be flown to St. Louis Lambert International on July 1, 2012 and then transported with Military Escort to Charleston by McMikle Funeral Home.

Full Military Graveside Rites will be conducted at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, July 3, 2012, at the IOOF Cemetery north of Charleston.

Pastor Dan Faust, pastor of the Charleston United Methodist Church, and a US Army Chaplain will officiate.

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the following article was written by Mary Rita Mashburn

"Mox, you're hit. Bail out!" These were the last words addressed to First Lieutenant Warren G. Moxley of Charleston, MO, on March 15, 1945. Moxley was killed in the vicinity of Rahms, Germany where his remains were declared unrecoverable - that is until recently.

Moxley's family was recently notified by the U.S. Army that with DNA testing, they have positively identified the remains of Moxley and that with the family's permission they wish to lay them to rest with full military honors.

Moxley, along with his brothers Byron and Fred, all fought during World War II. Byron was in the Navy and Fred was in the Marines.

When Moxley's plane was shot down, Second Lieutenant Harry J. Huff, II was the pilot in the aircraft next to him and, as an eyewitness, he reported: "I was on an artillery adjustment mission with Lt. Moxley on 15 March 1945 across the Rhine in the vicinity of Neustadt, Germany. We encountered an FW190 slightly south of the target area and each made two passes at it. After our first pass, intense flak and small arms fire started coming up at us. I fired first and third and Lt. Moxley second and fourth at the FW190. After my second pass, I swung back and noticed a parachute opening up and smoke coming from the enemy aircraft. Lt. Moxley called on the R/T and said, "Get a picture if you can." Just then I glanced over and saw Lt. Moxley flying parallel with the Autobahn with fire coming out off his left wing near the fuselage and fire near the scoop, apparently hit by anti-aircraft fire. I called, "Mox, you're hit. Bail out." He did not answer but flew about 1000 yards at about 1000 feet altitude, then turned sharply to the left and dove into the ground. The ship exploded and burned. I did not see him bail out nor did I see him walk away from the wreckage."

Official Army documents dated August 19, 1947 show that a letter was addressed to the Army from Huff, requesting the address of Moxley's next of kin. Family member do recall him coming to Charleston.

In June and August of 1949 the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC) conducted investigations in Rahms, Neustadt, and neighboring towns looking for remains of fallen American soldiers. They found no witnesses to a crash in Rahms and verified that all known crashes in the general area to other individuals. At this time, and as a result of this investigation, the AGRC Board of Review recommended that First Lt. Moxley's remains be declared "non-recoverable."

Moxley's family was contacted in 1993 when Heinz Jirousek, a World War II enthusiast in Germany, contacted the U.S. Army Memorial Affairs Activity - Europe regarding a crash site near Asbach. Jirousek had found possible human remains at a crash site. Personnel from the Army took custody of the potential remains and transferred them to the Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii on March 29, 1994. DNA samples from a brother of Moxley was taken and it was then determined that these were not the remains of Moxley but of another soldier. In May 2006, an investigative team from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) met with Jirousek in Hesseln, Germany in an attempt to learn additional details regarding the crash site in discovered in 1993. Jirousek explained that the remains he gave to the Army in 1993 were from two different crash sites. When showed pictures of the remains, he was able to identify which were from the first site and which were from the site believed to be where Moxley's plane went down. The decision was made to conduct additional testing on the remains. It was determined that "the totality of the circumstantial and biological evidence, including mtDNA testing, that the remains belong to First Lieutenant Warren G. Moxley to the exclusion of other reasonable candidates."

In April 2012, the family was contacted by the U.S. Army informing them that they had identified the remains of Warren G. Moxley.