Remember? Marine Mech’s A-4 Joyride
A-4M Skyhawk
Pretty impressive, if not exactly career enhancing. At least in the Marines- read on.
That Time a Marine Mechanic Took a Joyride in a Stolen A4M Skyhawk
By Blake Stilwell
How much could a Marine Corps fighter cost? That was probably one of the questions running through 21-year-old Lance Cpl. Howard Foote’s mind as the enlisted flight mechanic climbed into an unarmed A4M Skyhawk in the middle of a July night.
In case you were wondering, the cost is roughly $18 million. Rather, that was the cost back in 1984, when Foote stole one of them from Marine Corps Air Station El Toro. Today, that would be the equivalent of $41 million, adjusted for inflation.
Sentries tried to stop Foote as he taxied the aircraft for takeoff, but they just couldn’t get his attention.
“Foote joined the Marines to go to the Corps’ Enlisted Commissioning Program, hoping to attend flight school,” Lt. Tim Hoyle, an El Toro public affairs officer, told the Los Angeles Times. “However, while flying at 42,500 feet in a glider, he suffered an aerial embolism similar to the bends suffered by divers.”
The Marines took a dim view of his borrowing the bird, and so he spent some quality time in the brig and was awarded an OTH for his trouble. But that’s not the end of the tale, by far. Read the entire article here: Military.com
Category: Blue Skies, Marine Corps
See, even stealing millions of dollars of government property and being chaptered out of the service won’t prevent you from being a government contractor on multi-million dollar projects. 😉
Well… technically, he didn’t really steal it, it was more of a really big borrow…
The UCMJ actually does make that distinction. “Theft” requires the intent to keep the item in question permanently. “Wrongful appropriation” – e.g., temporarily taking possession of an item without authority, but with intent to return the item to its owner at a later time – is more apropos here. See UCMJ Article 121.
Dude really cooked his Goose when he went all Maverick. Put his Military Career on Ice, man. Bless his heart.
Maybe he shoulda joined the Navy?
Like the Naval Aviator who shot down his squadron CO, by mistake (of course), was kicked out of the Navy, and then joined the Navy Reserve as a JAG and was promoted (eventually) to Flag?
USAF aircraft, not his Squadron commander. And the “fine individual” was never confirmed by the Senate, so he never made Flag (for once, Congress got something right). Details here:
https://valorguardians.com/blog/?p=33751
Old story, so some of the links in it may now be defunct.
Been waiting for the opportunity…
*grin*
As you and I have said before, the sequel should have him flying rubber dog shit out of Hong Kong in a C-130. And it would still be better than the first movie.
— GROAN —
I knew a pilot he detoured his flight and landed his Chinook on the family farm. He didn’t go to jail, but career was not enhanced. He did make it to retirement.
From the article… Damn he was a good pilot.
“He tried to fly for Israel and Honduras after his discharge. Foote later qualified as a test pilot in more than 20 different military and civilian aircraft, and became a contractor to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He holds patents in aviation design and engineering technology.”
I was going to post this as I too, thought it significant. “Hey, I got patents in aviation design and engineering technology. …so IN YOUR FACE BITCHES!!!!!)
One other thing lacking in mentioning….
(from a link to a link from another linkkyy…
https://tacairnet.com/2014/03/10/jet-fighter-joyride/
)
” On the 4th of July, 1986, Lance Corporal Howard A. Foote Jr., USMC, unofficially became one of the last enlisted fighter pilots to have flown in the United States military. Now, when I say “unofficially”, I mean that he wasn’t actually authorized to fly a fighter aircraft… but he did so anyways.
*BALLS*
They wanted him gone to ensure no one else questioned why an NCO wasn’t able to fly a plane.
There is no requirement for pilots to be commissioned officers, or even Warrants.
Before pressurized cockpits, “bends” were not uncommon among pilots. Brooks AFB used to have the only decompression chamber in Texas back in the early 70s because of unpressurized cockpits.
There was no solid reason to keep the kid out of flight school. The altitude he had embolism was in pressure suit range for the A-4.
That should be for the glider, not the
A-4.