After 35 years missing, an Air Force captain mysteriously reappeared in the Bay Area
Andrew Chamings
Aug. 8, 2022
Updated: Aug. 8, 2022 12:24 p.m.
Air Force / Douglas Zimmerman / SFGATE
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.
The jigsaw puzzle of William Howard Hughes Jr.'s life has many missing pieces. After disappearing into thin air in 1983 he was wanted across the globe by numerous agencies, from the Air Force to the FBI to Interpol. At one point it was thought that he defected to the Russians. Some suggested he sabotaged the disastrous Challenger space shuttle launch. Even after his recent capture, much of this unlikely story remains a mystery for the ages. Here’s what we found out.
Born in Seattle in 1950 to a father who worked in the airline industry, Hughes had three sisters. He left the Pacific Northwest in his 20s to embark on a career in the Air Force, where he enlisted in 1973. By the age of 33 he was a captain at Kirtland Air Force base in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he gained top secret access, working on a NATO program that controlled missile launches and missile warning systems.
https://www.sfgate.com/sfhistory/article/mysterious-disappearance-of-william-hughes-17351393.php
