Leniency Urged for Marine in Fighter Joy Ride : Attorney Tells Hearing of El Toro Mechanic’s Lifelong Dream of Being Jet Pilot

Pleading for leniency and lesser charges, the defense attorney at a military hearing asked Tuesday that an El Toro Marine’s joy ride in a $14-million jet fighter be treated for what he said it was: “a once-in-a-lifetime flight from reality . . . not a beginning of criminal conduct.”

“This is a young Marine who was . . . shot down on the ground, if you will,” Capt. Bradley N. Garber said of Lance Cpl. Howard A. Foote Jr., 21, whose lifelong dream of being a fighter pilot was dashed by an embolism suffered in a recent quest to set the world’s glider plane altitude record.

“Perhaps he was in a deep depression, perhaps with nowhere to turn,” said Garber, summing up a two-day fact-finding hearing at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station on five charges stemming from Foote’s unauthorized flight in an A-4M Skyhawk at 2 a.m. last July 4.

Garber pleaded for reduced charges and administrative proceedings, which would not mar the overzealous young aviation mechanic’s spotless service record and future beyond the military. At worst, he argued, the alleged misconduct warranted a special court martial, the equivalent of a misdemeanor trial.

But the prosecutor, Capt. Jett L. Whitmer, raising the specter of Sunday’s disastrous midair collision over Cerritos, called for Foote to be given a general court martial for risking public safety in the unauthorized taking of an aircraft, grounded for mechanical trouble, for a 30- to 40-minute nighttime ride.

“Flying is not a safe business” without proper precautions and training, Whitmer said. “Certainly, this is made clear with the air disaster in Southern California this last weekend.”

If convicted in a general court martial, Foote could face up to four years in military prison and a dishonorable discharge.

Investigating Officer Lt. Col. Tom H. McDermott said he would give his recommendations in about two weeks to a lieutenant colonel assigned to decide the case. A final decision was expected later this month.

Foote is charged with wrongful appropriation of a government aircraft and a maintenance truck, willful damage to government property in connection with minor damage to the jet’s exterior, disobeying regulations and unlawfully entering a base military shop.

The fifth charge--hazarding a vessel by flying without proper training or approval and recklessly disregarding the aircraft’s mechanical condition--could technically result in a death penalty under centuries-old maritime law. Garber argued for dismissal of that charge on grounds that an aircraft is not a vessel.

Seven character witnesses testified on Foote’s behalf Tuesday.

One was Los Alamitos High School special education counselor Betty Thompson, who said that, as a student in Los Alamitos, “Buddy” Foote has been “a real inspiration” to her because of his desire to work toward becoming a jet pilot despite an unspecified learning disability.

Marine Capt. Robert O. Deloach, a helicopter training instructor at the base who trained for two hours with Foote on an A-4 flight simulator, said the young man “had the skills to do what he did.”

Deloach said Foote’s competence on the simulator left “no doubt there was very minimal risk” in the unauthorized flight. “I have no doubt he could take off, bring it back and land it on that runway,” he said, describing Foote as a “superior Marine” who “always showed a little more hustle than the rest.”