Missing Airmen’s Remains Identified

Defense Department forensic scientists have identified the remains of Army Air Forces 1st Lt. Warren G. Moxley, 23, of Charleston, Mo., a pilot missing since World War II. They’ve also identified the remains of 1st Lt. Robert E. Bennett III, 25, of Springfield, N.J., an aviator unaccounted for since the Vietnam War. Moxley is scheduled to be buried with full military honors on July 3 in his hometown; Bennett will be laid to rest in Montrose, Colo., on July 7, according to the Defense Department’s June 29 release. Moxley was flying an F-6C Mustang reconnaissance aircraft over Asbach, Germany, when he crashed due to unidentified circumstances on March 15, 1945. Evidence gathered at the crash site between 1993 and 2006 led to his identification. Bennett and another officer were flying an F-4C Phantom II that crashed on Dec. 13, 1967, during a close air support mission in Tra Vinh Binh province, South Vietnam. Both men ejected. A Navy patrol boat rescued Bennett’s colleague, but rescuers saw Bennett sink into water and presumably drown. Remains and military equipment discovered in 2010 during dredging enabled his identification, according to the release.