--- title: "That time a Marine mechanic took a joyride in a stolen A4M Skyhawk" date: "2021-09-03" modified: "2021-09-03" authors: - name: "Blake Stilwell" job_title: "Editor-In-Chief, Air Force Veteran" link: "https://www.wearethemighty.com/authors/blake/" url: "https://www.wearethemighty.com/mighty-history/that-time-a-marine-mechanic-took-a-joyride-in-a-stolen-a4m-skyhawk/" categories: - "History" - "Marine Corps" --- # That time a Marine mechanic took a joyride in a stolen A4M Skyhawk ![]() 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. --- ![]() *An A4M Skyhawk taking off in 1989. (U.S. Marine Corps photo)* 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 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 bends is the divers' term for decompression sickness, where gasses in the body (like nitrogen in the compressed oxygen tanks used by divers) come out of the blood in bubbles because the body doesn't have time to adjust to the pressure around it. Flight school was not going to happen. Foote became a mechanic instead. Still, he had to realize his dream of going up at the helm of a fighter. "I had worked my entire life for this flight," Foote [told the LA Times, four years later](). "There was nothing else." ![]() *An LA Times Clipping of the incident. (Tactical Air Network)* The young Marine drove up to the plane in a vehicle used to take pilots to their aircraft. He even wore a flight suit to dress the part. He flew the fighter for 50 miles, roughly a half hour, doing loops and barrel rolls over the Pacific Ocean. He then landed it after making five passes of the runway. No one tracked the plane. They didn't send any other fighters to intercept it. Foote brought it back all on his own. That's integrity. Foote was sent to the stockade at Camp Pendleton. He served four and a half months of confinement and was served an other-than-honorable discharge. He tried to fly for Israel and for 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. ## Author Blake Stilwell is We Are The Mighty's Editor-in-Chief, covering military news, entertainment, and history, along with veteran education, employment and entrepreneurship. He is a former U.S. Air Force combat cameraman with degrees in Graphic Design, Television and Film, International Relations, Public Relations, Business Management and Middle Eastern Affairs. After leaving the military, he began working in film and television production in New York and Los Angeles, work that included ABC News, NBC Olympics, and HBO Sports. He then spent two years in Washington with White House Communications, before joining the Near East Foundation. At NEF he served as an International Development Fellow, then Communications Officer, and finally, Media Officer for the Middle East and Africa. Based in the Palestinian Territory, he coordinated strategic communications between eight country offices, international media, and government and NGO partners. He began a career focused on writing and editing in 2015 with We Are The Mighty. He left in 2019 for Military.com, but returned as Editor-in-Chief in 2025. Blake’s work has been seen on CBS News, Fox News, CBC, The Chicago Tribune, Task & Purpose, Military Times, Recoil, Skillset, American History, and was shockingly even used in a Supreme Court argument. He is an avid traveler and small business owner in Ohio, where he spends most of his energy fixing up a very old house. ### Author social links [Facebook]() [Twitter]() [Instagram]() [LinkedIn]()