{"id":139615,"date":"2018-06-11T15:39:02","date_gmt":"2018-06-11T15:39:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/us-air-force-deserter-found-after-35-years\/"},"modified":"2018-06-11T15:39:02","modified_gmt":"2018-06-11T15:39:02","slug":"us-air-force-deserter-found-after-35-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/us-air-force-deserter-found-after-35-years\/","title":{"rendered":"US Air Force deserter found after 35 years"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure>                                  <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Capt. William Howard Hughes, Jr. (file photo)\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/320\/cpsprodpb\/15AC8\/production\/_101967788_f502b137-a0a6-4110-9e5f-25cb9efd12af.jpg\"\/>Image copyright                  USAF<figcaption>Image caption                                      Capt Hughes had a top secret security clearance at the time of his disappearance                              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"caps\">A man who deserted from the US Air Force in July 1983 has been apprehended in California, the US military says.<\/p>\n<p>Capt William Howard Hughes Jr, who had top-secret clearance, was last seen withdrawing $28,500 (\u00a321,300) from his bank account at 19 different locations in New Mexico.<\/p>\n<p>A man claiming to be Barry O&#039;Beirne was interviewed earlier this month by officials investigating passport fraud.<\/p>\n<p>Pressed on inconsistencies, the man said his real name was William Hughes.<\/p>\n<p>He claimed he had been depressed about being in the air force so left and created a false identity. He had been living in California ever since, he said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>You may also like:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Russian deserter hid in woods for 11 years<\/li>\n<li>The mystery of the homesick mechanic<\/li>\n<li>US Navy deserter turned WW1 military hero<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Capt Hughes is currently being held at Travis Air Force Base in California, a statement from the USAF&#039;s office of special investigations said.<\/p>\n<p>He faces a maximum sentence of five years confinement, forfeiture of all pay and dishonourable discharge for his desertion.<\/p>\n<p>At the time of his disappearance he had just returned from the Netherlands, where he had been working with Nato officers.<\/p>\n<p>Due to his access to classified information he was declared a fugitive and was on a list of the USAF&#039;s seven most wanted individuals.<\/p>\n<p>Linda Card, spokeswoman for the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, told the Albuquerque Journal that at this stage, investigators have had &quot;no indication that he had any classified information or that he gave any classified information&quot;.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Until we have the whole story, we don&#039;t have the story,&quot; Ms Card said.<\/p>\n<p>Ms Card also told the Journal that they have informed Capt Hughs&#039; family of his apprehension. <\/p>\n<p>Officials do not know whether his family knew his whereabouts beforehand.<\/p>\n<p>In a 1984 article by the Associated Press, Capt Hughes&#039; family said they believed he had been abducted. <\/p>\n<p>&quot;We do not feel he disappeared voluntarily,&quot; his sister, Christine Hughes, had said, according to the Journal.<\/p>\n<p>Hughes was unmarried at the time, but has three sisters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image copyright USAFImage caption Capt Hughes had a top secret security clearance at the time of his disappearance A man who deserted from the US Air Force in July 1983<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":139616,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-139615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}