William Howard Hughes Facts: Air Force Officer, Missing For 35 Years, Arrested

A high ranking Air Force officer, who went missing 35 years ago, was apprehended by officials when they found him living under a false identity in California on June 6.

In a news release, the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) said the Department of State was investigating a man named “Barry O’Beirne” in connection to a passport fraud inquiry.

“After being confronted with inconsistencies about his identity, the individual admitted his true name was William Howard Hughes Jr., and that he deserted from the U.S. Air Force in 1983,” the AFOSI news release read.

Hughes was charged with desertion and is being held at Travis Air Force Base in California. If convicted, he might face maximum penalties of dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of all pay and confinement of five years.

Although Hughes told the authorities he abandoned his air force career because he had gotten “depressed,” and assumed a fake identity before settling down in California, the AFOSI authorities said there were a number of questions that still remain unanswered regarding his disappearance, which will be revealed as investigation into his actions continued.

Here is all you need to know about Hughes and his mysterious disappearance:

1. Before his disappearance, Hughes, 31 years old at the time, was assigned to the Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center, Kirkland, New Mexico. He was in charge of highly classified operations involving NATO’s command, control and communications surveillance systems, Task & Purpose, a news outlet run by and for veterans, reported.

2. He was briefly relocated to Netherlands in order to test NATO’s new Airborne Warning and Control System, which was designed to be used for surveillance, command and control, battlespace management and communications. On Aug. 1, 1983, he was supposed to return to work at Kirkland, but never turned up.

3. Air Force formally declared Hughes a deserter in December 1983. The news of Hughes’ disappearance made headlines the following year, with a front-page Albuquerque Journal announcing “Kirtland Launches Search for Officer Missing 5 Months” on Jan. 17, 1984.

4. He was last seen withdrawing more than $28,000 from his bank accounts in Albuquerque in 1983, following which, investigators discovered his car at the city's airport. Also, a raid of his home in 1900 block of Chandelle Loop in Albuquerque revealed to-do lists and books he planned to read upon his return.

5. His parents told the media at the time they believed Hughes had been abducted. “We do not feel he disappeared voluntarily,” his sister, Christine Hughes, said. There were even rumors he might have been defected to the Soviet Union.

6. AFOSI spokeswoman Linda Card has maintained there is no evidence supporting claims that Hughes was working for the Soviet Union, nor that he leaked any classified information. “They (AFOSI investigators) said at this point there’s no indication that he had any classified information or that he gave any classified information,” Card said. “Until we have the whole story, we don’t have the story.”

7. Pentagon officials always maintained Hughes had top secret clearance, but “none that could compromise national security.”