Marine Accused of Taking El Toro Jet on 2 a.m. Joy Ride

July 05, 1986|MARK I. PINSKY | Times Staff Writer

A record-breaking young glider pilot, now an enlisted flight mechanic, took an unauthorized pre-dawn joy ride Friday in an $18-million jet fighter based at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, officials said.

He was identified as Lance Cpl. Howard A. Foote Jr., 21, of Los Alamitos. The Marine Corps said he donned a flight suit at 2 a.m. Friday and climbed aboard an unarmed A-4M Skyhawk.

He took off from an unlighted runway, flew about 50 miles and returned to the base half an hour later, officials said. They didn’t know which direction he’d headed.

By the time he returned, Lt. Col. Jerry Shelton said, the lights on the runway had been turned on, but it took Foote five passes to land.

Foote was taken into custody and charged with wrongful appropriation of a government aircraft, Shelton said, a charge that carries with it a maximum sentence of two years in prison and a dishonorable discharge. He was taken to the stockade at Camp Pendleton.

The single-seat fighter, no longer in production, is part of the 214th Marine Attack Squadron, whose mission is to provide close air support to the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing. Foote is normally assigned to station operations and maintenance for visiting aircraft.

Before joining the Marines in 1984, Foote broke several altitude records for glider pilots under the age of 21.

“I missed my senior prom because I was flying,” Foote said in a 1984 interview before graduating from Los Alamitos High School.

Foote had hoped to be accepted into the Marine Corps’ Enlisted Commissioning Program, with the ultimate goal of going to flight school, said Lt. Tim Hoyle, an El Toro public affairs officer.

However, Hoyle said Friday, while flying at 42,500 feet in a glider, Foote suffered an aerial embolism, a blockage in the bloodstream caused by lack of oxygen. It’s an affliction similar to the “bends” suffered by divers.

“He found out recently that he probably wouldn’t get accepted for flight school” as a result of the injury, Hoyle said.

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