Court-Martial Ordered for Marine Over Jet Joy Ride

The commanding general at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station has decided that Lance Cpl. Howard A. Foote Jr. should be court-martialed for allegedly taking a $14-million fighter plane on a Fourth of July joy ride, an El Toro Marine official said Friday.

Brig. Gen. D.E.P. Miller ordered that Foote, 21, whose lifelong dream was to become a fighter pilot, be given a general court-martial, said Lt. Col. Jerry Shelton. The decision was made Wednesday, Shelton said.

The general agreed with a prosecutor’s recommendation that, despite his military record as an exemplary Marine before the nighttime escapade, Foote seriously risked the public’s safety in the unauthorized flight of an A-4M Skyhawk from the El Toro station.

Foote, an aviation mechanic and record-breaking glider pilot, is accused of taking the jet fighter, which was grounded for mechanical trouble, during a 30- to 40-minute flight about 2 a.m.

Miller rejected recommendations for leniency and lesser charges that were made by Foote’s military legal counsel. During a Sept. 3 military hearing, Capt. Bradley N. Garber said the alleged misconduct warranted a special court-martial, the equivalent of a misdemeanor trial rather than the more severe general court-martial.

Foote will be tried on charges that he damaged the aircraft, two charges of wrongfully taking the aircraft and a pickup truck (which he drove onto the airfield) and that he illegally entered a Marine building with intent to commit a criminal offense.

The trial is expected to start Sept. 29.

If he is convicted, the maximum sentence could be a dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of all pay (30 to 60 days after a court-martial decision), 19 years of confinement and hard labor, and reduction in rank to private.

Maximum Sentence Not Likely

But there is very little likelihood that the Marine Corps will seek a maximum sentence, the trial counsel said through a spokesman on Friday.

Before the plane was taken, Foote, a Los Alamitos native, had learned that a blood ailment caused by an attempt to break a glider altitude record probably had put an end to his ambition of becoming a jet pilot.

The general dropped the charge of hazarding a vessel by flying without proper training and authorization. If Foote had been convicted of the centuries-old naval law, technically he could have received the death penalty.

The Marine Corps is a branch of the Navy, and malicious or grossly negligent destruction of a vessel is still a capital offense under old maritime law.

“There was never any serious consideration for asking for a death penalty,” Shelton said Friday.

Held in Brig

However, the charge affected Foote’s incarceration in the brig at Camp Pendleton where he has been held.

Foote’s friends and relatives were said to have been critical of his alleged mistreatment while in the brig, including being shackled when he left his cell, solitary confinement and no exercise or medical treatment.

Shelton, who called the brig, said that Foote had never been denied any recreation or medical treatment. He was placed under “close custody,” a policy where prisoners accused of a capital offense are shackled when outside their cell. This occurred from Aug. 30 to Sept. 5, Shelton said.

While in custody, Foote is assigned mess duty and washes dishes from 4:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. with two 1 1/2-hour breaks. During those breaks, Shelton said, Foote is entitled to watch television, read or to exercise.