The mysterious vanishing (and reappearance) of William Howard Hughes

It’s not clear exactly how long a man who called himself Barry O’Beirne lived a quiet life in Daly City, the sleepy suburb a few miles south of San Francisco. It’s also not clear what he was doing on the morning of Wednesday, June 6, 2018, when, after 35 years, Air Force special agents knocked on his door and arrested him for desertion.

Hughes bought a modest home in Albuquerque near the base and lived alone. In July of 1983 he was transferred to the Netherlands for a short trip to work on the same technology there. He was due to report back to Kirtland on Aug 1. The disappearance of Hughes came during the dark dying days of the Cold War. The US government would later describe the likelihood of a nuclear strike in the fall of 1983 as resting on a “hair trigger.”

Pentagon officials confirmed that a captain “with top secret access is missing under mysterious circumstances.” With Cold War paranoia high, the FBI tried to downplay fears,After months of silence, Hughes’ sisters in Seattle spoke out, pushing back on the idea that their brother was a spy, instead stating he was likely abducted. Sister Christine Hughes described his disappearance as “totally out of character for the Bill we knew. We do not feel he disappeared voluntarily.

Hughes’ name was next aired in the press by an acclaimed journalist credited with breaking the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 – New York Times foreign correspondent Tad Szulc.” Szulc noted a “bizarre pattern” of failed space rocket and missile launches by the US and France in recent months.

As the Cold War started to thaw, the story, and the missing Air Force captain, were largely forgotten in the media.

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