I am pretty sure I know the answer but hey, asking doesn’t cost anything:
Given that I do not have a laser, is there any technique that can be used to cut up to 1/2” thick foam on an Altmill? I want to cut out pockets for tool holding in a drawer.
Your AltMill will cut foam all day long. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3LGMc3H9mI
Wow, I did not expect that. Thank you very much for posting the link!
@Jens FWIW, I’ve cut lots of black foam for camera inserts in pelican boxes. I’m much too cheap to pay big bucks for specialty foam bits. I used a “normal” 3-flute upcut 1/4" end mill from Sienci. I used a new one, figuring that was as sharp as it was going to get. I ran the Makita full out and my Long Mill at 150IPM, which is fast as it would go at the time. I held everything down with blue tape and CA glue. My wife was happy with the results, which was all that mattered. 
Nice link. I doubt I would have thought about the difference between climb and conventional. It makes sense after watching the video. The space at the end of the chip is already cleared out with conventional if I’m understanding correctly.
EDIT: I take back everything I said about it making sense to me. I did some more reading about conventional vs climb and came away more confused than when I started. Oh well, such is life…