U.S. Air Force fugitive missing for 35 years found living in California

Capt,. William Howard Hughes Jr. was a Seattle native, but what really caught my attention was how it was suspected that several missile/space launch failures, including the NASA Challenger Shuttle disaster, may have been attributed to secrets that he gave the Russians. I will be following this story and will be interested to learn what, if anything, is revealed about what REALLY happened. Why would he intentionally disappear for 35 years?

USA TODAY SOURCE ARTICLE

A U.S. Air Force officer who went missing in 1983 was found last week, living in California. Capt. William Howard Hughes, Jr., who was going by the name Barry O'Beirne, admitted his true identity after becoming the subject of a passport fraud investigation during an interview with the U.S. Department of State's Diplomatic Security Service on June 5. Hughes, now 66, was arrested by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations the next day. Hughes said he became depressed in the Air Force, created the fictitious identity and has been living in California ever since, according to an Air Force press release. He was last sent overseas, to the Netherlands, on July 18, 1983, to work with North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) officers. He was supposed to return to Albuquerque, N.M., on Aug. 1 of that year. But the Air Force never heard from him since he left for Europe.

CNN SOURCE ARTICLE

His mysterious disappearance during the Cold War spurred theories that he had been abducted by the Soviet Union or defected to what was then known as the USSR to work against the US. In 1985 and 1986, several French and American rocket ships failed to launch properly and subsequently exploded, including the Challenger space shuttle. In the wake of those disasters, Los Angeles Times journalist Tad Szulc reported in July of 1986 that intelligence officers believed the rockets may have been sabotaged with Hughes' help. "(Intelligence officers) see a clear link between Hughes and possible sabotage of the American and French launches," the newspaper reported then. "He is worth his weight in gold to the Russians in terms of future 'Star Wars,' if we have them," one intelligence officer told the Times.

LA TIMES 1986 ARTICLE RE: SABOTAGED MISSILE LAUNCHES

In a departure from its public position, the French government has concluded that the explosion of its Ariane rocket at the Kourou launch site in French Guinea on May 30 may have been due to sabotage. According to French intelligence officials, the investigation into the Ariane accident has been secretly reopened because, "Initially we had no reason to raise the question of sabotage, but now we have reason to ask that question." France has shared its concerns and suspicions about Ariane with the highest levels of U.S. intelligence--French Defense Minister Andre Giraud is believed to have touched on this topic when he visited Washington last Tuesday and Wednesday--because of the series of catastrophes involving American space launches this year. The French and American accidents are adding up to a bizarre pattern, surrounded by strange coincidences and unexplained events, deeply preoccupying Western intelligence. These include the apparent defection to the Soviet Union in 1983 of the U.S. Air Force's leading expert on rocket self-destruct procedures. With the loss of the space shuttle Challenger on Jan. 28, a Titan 34-D rocket on April 18, a Delta rocket on May 3 and the French Ariane, all of which carried American reconnaissance satellites, the United States no longer has the capability of putting satellites into orbit to monitor Soviet nuclear deployments and serve as early-warning systems against a ballistic-missile attack. The Challenger and the Delta rocket were launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida, the Titan from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Before the string of 1986 losses, a Titan blew up at Vandenberg last August and an Ariane rocket exploded at Kourou in September.

That's a lame excuse. All he had to do is resign his commission and move on.

Doesn't add up.

S&F

a reply to: EternalShadow

All he had to do was not re-up... Does not add up correct

Same age as me, I had the Manchurian team come after me, him too ?

But the fact is, he wasn't abducted and he didn't defect. He was living in California all this time. So how does that equate to his being responsible for a bunch of rocket failures? Also, news reports saying he was a "high ranking officer" are laughable. He was a Captain, an O-3, two steps up from the bottom.

Because Russians.

That's all we need to know.

a reply to: seattlerat

#nothissanctuary

Yeah doesn’t make much sense.
The story says he was a “leading expert on self-destruct procedures”?
I don’t know about the other launches, but everyone knows what happened to the Challenger.

The simple fact is "if it bleeds, it leads". No one wants to hear about an Air Force officer who went AWOL, and lived the next 30 years quietly raising a family. So the media is going to do everything they can, short of something he can sue them over, to make it more interesting.

I would probably push the wrong buttons with that uni-brow too.

"But, Marsha, Marsha, Russia!"

That's pretty much all I gained from the story.

a reply to: Mandroid7

My brother-in-law spent part of his career being involved in classified satellite launches out of Vanderburgh. I don't know what his final record was, but there was a time when every launch he was involved with blew up. We used to give him so much grief over that.

a reply to: schuyler


Any officer is high ranking to an enlisted man. Captains in the Air Force do all kinds of important stuff. In fact, I’d say Captains are probably the guys getting their hands dirty so to speak the most in the officer corps. Once you hit major and above you will move into more Commander roles. Plus, if you are a #ty officer you can remain a Captain until you retire at 20 year of service.

originally posted by: GBP/JPY
a reply to: EternalShadow

All he had to do was not re-up... Does not add up correct

Same age as me, I had the Manchurian team come after me, him too ?

Unless it wasnt the time to re-up ?

originally posted by: Mandroid7
I would probably push the wrong buttons with that uni-brow too.

"But, Marsha, Marsha, Russia!"

That's pretty much all I gained from the story.

Yeah , me too
CNN and Russia
Seems like they have some form of psychological need or affliction...

a reply to: schuyler

Yeah, that's a little odd. He's, as you say, only two steps from the bottom.

If he was in cahoots with the Sovs, why would he hide in the US? Why not do what those Brits back in the day did? Go native, live the high life in the Soviet Union.

Something odd here.

a reply to: Wide-Eyes

Any way to make 'em remain the ultimate bad guy. The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming!

After 3/4's of a century, you'd think that they'd have been here by now.

a reply to: seagull

This is the same media that reported the Asiana fight crew that crashed in San Francisco as "Sum Ting Wong," "Wi Tu Lo," "Ho Lee Fuk" and "Bang Ding Ow" without even blinking. You think they give a damn about what really happened when they can sensationalize it?

originally posted by: PokeyJoe
a reply to: schuyler


Any officer is high ranking to an enlisted man. Captains in the Air Force do all kinds of important stuff. In fact, I’d say Captains are probably the guys getting their hands dirty so to speak the most in the officer corps. Once you hit major and above you will move into more Commander roles. Plus, if you are a #ty officer you can remain a Captain until you retire at 20 year of service.

I'm sorry, but we're not talking from an enlisted perspective, but journalists, who ought to know better. An O-3 is simply NOT, by any measure, a "high ranking officer." That claim is ludicrous. In fact, you would be hard pressed to find an enlisted person who would acknowledge a Captain as "high ranking" either. Enlisted, by and large, a rather contemptuous of the officer corps and won't even salute O-1s at all. And O-3 "high ranking?"

a reply to: schuyler

So was seeing the headline, "Experts: Boeing 777 will have trouble maintaining altitude after running out of fuel", or any one of a number of other Idiotuc things journalists have done in recent years. It's no longer about accuracy, it's about being first, and sensationalism.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Missed that one. There'd have been some unemployed reporters after that, were I the editor/owner...

a reply to: seagull

They blamed it on an intern researcher or something like that, but it's pretty telling that not one person even raised an eyebrow until they were called on it.