After 35 years missing, an Air Force captain mysteriously reappeared in Bay Area

ok_dad | karma 5644 | avg karma 3.22 · 2022-08-12 20:25:35

I can’t imagine it’s possible to start over like this today.

cafard | karma 5949 | avg karma 1.1 · 2022-08-12 20:37:05

It must be a lot harder, yes.

K33P4D | karma 104 | avg karma 2.54 · 2022-08-12 22:48:16

falkun | karma 1 | avg karma 1.0 · 2022-08-12 23:16:33

goose was a navy wizzo.

tjr | karma 8894 | avg karma 4.16 · 2022-08-12 23:57:02

At that time in New York City, 37-year-old real estate developer Donald Trump was finishing the construction of Trump Tower. Hughes wouldn’t be seen again until Trump was president.

That seems like a kind of jarring, out-of-place paragraph in an article that has nothing else to do with Donald Trump.

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matthewdgreen | karma 9367 | avg karma 4.09 · 2022-08-13 00:14:22

I think the purpose was to provide the reader with an intuitive feel for how much the world changed over 35 years. Since I was alive in the 80s it worked pretty well for me, YMMV.

NaughtyShiba | karma 81 | avg karma 0.92 · 2022-08-13 10:24:31

While that’s a valid case, such details can provoke discussion/flamewar

abudabi123 | karma 592 | avg karma 0.66 · 2022-08-13 00:45:10

Is it true in the early days of jet engine technology the USAF's was transferred to Russia's?

pinewurst | karma 7743 | avg karma 3.3 · 2022-08-13 01:22:54

No, but the British sold their advanced (for the time) RR Nene jet engine to Russia which they (of course) copied to enable Mig-15 and Il-28 jets. Idiots.

MichaelZuo | karma 3522 | avg karma 0.88 · 2022-08-13 09:41:02

That was probably their intention. Why do you think they are idiots? For not sharing identical interests with the U.S.?

pinewurst | karma 7743 | avg karma 3.3 · 2022-08-13 12:23:46

For selling advanced engines with the proviso that they wouldn't be used for military purposes (sure!). It was a combination of desperately trying to improve balance of payments - though the chance of the USSR buying more than a handful was nil - magnified by Stafford Cripps' Stalin sympathies/naivete.

MichaelZuo | karma 3522 | avg karma 0.88 · 2022-08-15 06:46:54

I’m fairly certain the folks selling jet engines in post WW2 Britain had been around the block. They almost surely understood it would be used for military purposes as well. And plus it’s not exactly something that could be hidden from the government so it must have been approved by several people too.

It’s not plausible to suggest all these folks were Pollyannas.

The more plausible explanation is that they didn’t really mind if the Soviet Union strengthened its military aviation.

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abudabi123 | karma 592 | avg karma 0.66 · 2022-08-16 18:31:31

A simpler explanation is everyone wants to get paid. Cheating and stealing and worse is imaginable.

MichaelZuo | karma 3522 | avg karma 0.88 · 2022-08-17 10:40:31

Profit is also quite likely a motive. Though I’m not sure why that’s simpler. Since it couldn’t be done quickly or discreetly, there was likely ample time to reflect on possible consequences.

abudabi123 | karma 592 | avg karma 0.66 · 2022-08-14 03:27:17

Who decided and why to cancel the British satellite launch program? Who decided and why to insert Russian/Ukraine rocket engines in the U.S. satellite launch program despite the proven track record of U.S. firms behind the Saturn-V and Shuttle?

kazinator | karma 30751 | avg karma 1.78 · 2022-08-13 01:48:41

> military court records reveal Hughes was found guilty of desertion and was sentenced to 45 days in military prison in September 2018. He subsequently lost an appeal a month later.

45 days is such a break from five years; just suck it up, you know?

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jononomo | karma 471 | avg karma 0.41 · 2022-08-13 09:27:49

I feel bad for his family — he abandoned them, too.