An Air Force officer with top security clearance who vanished 35 years ago and was arrested in California last week worked for years as a consultant for the University of California system, former colleagues said. University system colleagues knew William Howard Hughes Jr. as a personable, brainy number cruncher for the system's vast health benefits program, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Wednesday. The Air Force Office of Special Investigations said Hughes was charged with desertion and is being held at Travis Air Force Base in California.