History of Clark Air Base
Encyclopedia
The history of Clark Air Base
, Philippines
dates back to the late 19th century when it was settled by Filipino military forces. The United States established a presence at the turn of the century.
In the late 19th century, a British
company working under contract to the colonial Spanish
administration, had completed the Manila
-Dagupan
Railroad and at the time of America's victory over the Spanish, this still represented the best means of transportation in Luzon. Following the incidents that led to the beginning of US-Philippine hostilities
and Emilio Aguinaldo
's withdrawal to the north from Manila, the American forces attempted to seize control of this valuable line of communication. The Philippine Army
, numbering about 15,000, was just as determined to defend this vital link, and during 1899, fought a series of unsuccessful battles with US forces.
On March 17, 1899, General Aguinaldo moved the seat of his government from Nueva Ecija
to the town of Angeles, which lay astride the Manila-Dagupan Railroad, and there celebrated the first anniversary of the Philippine Republic, on June 12, 1899. The Republican government remained hard-pressed by the American advance, and in July, Aguinaldo moved his government again, this time, to the town of Tarlac, further to the north.
The battle for Angeles began on August 13, 1899 and lasted for three days. Opposing the U.S. Army's VIII Corps, commanded by Major General
Arthur MacArthur
, were Philippine forces under the command of Brigadier General
Maximino Hizon, Servillano Aquino, Pio del Pilar, Venancio Concepcion, and Tomas Mascardo. The fighting was fierce and bloody and even though Colonel
Alberto San Miguel and a General Makabulos brought fresh reinforcements, the Filipinos finally had to withdraw. They took up positions on the Mabalacat
side of the Abacan River and remained there until November 5, when American cavalry flanking movements rendered these positions untenable. After a final day-long bloody engagement on the 5th, Filipino forces withdrew to the north. Meanwhile, American forces already had taken possession of Angeles.
Initially, the American occupation of Angeles was considered temporary, and the troops lived in tents, temporary shelters, or within the town itself. From mid-August until the final action on November 5, 1899, war-time conditions existed because Aguinaldo's rear guard forces held positions just across the Abacan River.
and reared in Manila
, Clark was commissioned a second lieutenant
of Cavalry in 1913. In 1916, he transferred to the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps, and in 1917 was rated a Junior Military Aviator.
Clark flew assignments in Columbus, New Mexico
; Kelly Field, Texas; and Fort Sill
, Oklahoma
. He went to Hawaii to command an air service station and was the first United States airman to fly in Hawaii. Upon his return to the United States, Clark served at fields in Washington, D.C. and San Diego, California. After completion of a pursuit course, he was appointed as the commanding officer of a pursuit group of the First Provisional Wing at Mineola
, New York.
Clark later became an executive officer with the Aviation Section in Panama
. Major Clark died on May 2, 1919 in a seaplane crash in the Miraflores Locks, Panama Canal Zone
and was interred at Arlington National Cemetery
.
The 3d Aero Squadron was Clark Field's first aviation unit. It later became the 3d Tactical Fighter Squadron of the 3d Tactical Fighter Wing and was also stationed at Clark Air Base. With the eruption of Mount Pinatubo
in 1991, the 3d Tactical Fighter Wing was deactivated and is now the United States Air Force's 3d Wing, the host wing for Elmendorf Air Force Base
in Alaska
.
Men of the 3d Aero Squadron of the U.S. Army, began the grueling work of building the first runway at Fort Stotsenburg in 1919. This airfield would be named after Major Harold Clark; when completed Clark Field became the only American airdrome west of Hawaii.
The DeHavilland DH-4 became the first U.S. Army airplane to be deployed at Clark Field, arriving in 1919. This DH-4 was flown by Major Roy Brown, Commander of the 3d Aero Squadron, and, as was the custom of the day, bore his personal insignia.
The fledgling U.S. Army Air Corps was forced to use a variety of aircraft from different sources to keep its units up to strength. Around 1920, World War I SPAD S.VII
s of French manufacture were deployed to Clark Field.
After the establishment of Clark Field, new family and bachelor officers quarters were needed. In 1920, construction of eight "barns" were completed near what is now the intersection of Dau Avenue and Marrat Highway.
By the mid-1920s, the initial stages of construction at Clark had been completed such as aircraft hangars and support buildings. Also completed by this time are enlisted barracks, a bachelor officers quarters, and eight "barns" along what is now Marratt Highway.
It was in the 1920s that the Martin
MB-2 biplane
was introduced and subsequently extensively used for Clark Field operations. The U.S. Army Air Service contingent in the Philippines consisted of the 28th Bombardment and 3rd Pursuit Squadrons, forming the 4th Composite Group.
During this decade, General Aguinaldo would also have the opportunity to visit Fort Stotsenburg and Clark Airfield. Having served in the Philippines during the Philippine-American War, General Billy Mitchell revisited Fort Stotsenburg in 1924 during a 9-month survey of the Pacific aerial defenses. During this visit, Mitchell gave a flying lesson to the leader of the Philippine Revolution
, General Emilio Aguinaldo, whom he had helped capture.
In the 1920s the 2nd Battalion of the 24th Field Artillery Regiment was activated and regularly went to Camp O'Donnell
for target practice or to Lingayen, Pangasinan
for maneuvers with all U.S. forces based on Luzon. This regiment was composed of Philippine Scouts who were led by officers derived from the Regular Army
or from the ranks of Filipino officers who had attended West Point
.
Martin B-10
s were stationed at Clark Field with the 28th Bombardment Squadron in the late 1930s. When the 28th received new B-17s, three of these very outmoded B-10s were transferred to the Philippine Army Air Corps
.
On December 8, 1941, General Douglas MacArthur
, who recently had been called back to active service and placed in command of all U.S. and Philippine forces, had known of the attack on Pearl Harbor
since about five in the morning, but insisted on delaying any hostile act by the forces under his command until the Japanese committed an overt attack on the Philippines. Major General Lewis H. Brereton
, Far East Air Force
Commander, argued in vain that his bombers at Clark should be allowed to strike military targets on Taiwan
, the location from which everyone felt the Japanese attack would come. Meanwhile, the B-17s at Clark were loaded first with anti-ship ordnance. Later, that order was rescinded and different bombs were uploaded for use against Japanese airfields on Taiwan. Eventually, Brereton got permission to send one B-17 on a reconnaissance mission to the north. When the attack came, maintenance crews were in the process of preparing the one reconnaissance plane, changing the bomb loads in the other B-17s, and refueling the fighters, which had just come in from patrol. The aircrews were eating lunch. They were sitting ducks.
On December 8, 1941, the US Far East Air Force consisted of the 19th Bombardment Group (Heavy) under Colonel Eugene L. Eubank at Clark and the 24th Pursuit Group under Colonel Orrin L. Glover, also at Clark. The 19th had
The total number of available military airplanes at that moment was over 142 aircraft (not counting the O-46s and O-52s). Within a few hours, despite heroic efforts, almost all of these aircraft, with the exception of the ones deployed to Mindanao, were gone.
Following the Japanese air attacks on Clark Field and other military areas in the Philippines on December 8, 1941, and the subsequent landing of Japanese ground forces on Luzon, General Douglas MacArthur activated War Plan Orange
. This plan called for the gradual withdrawal of American and Philippine forces south past several defensive positions (one of which ran through Tarlac, just north of Clark) to the Bataan
Peninsula, where they could await reinforcements from Hawaii and the U.S. The defense of Bataan in the face of vastly overwhelming numbers and terrible battle conditions proved beyond a doubt the capabilities of the untested allied forces. At one point during this period in early 1942, Philippine Brigadier General Vicente Lim
established his headquarters in a pigpen.
After the collapse of American/Filipino defense lines on Bataan and the decisions to declare Manila an open city
to end the defense of Corregidor
, American and Filipino
prisoners of war were marched at gunpoint back up the Bataan Peninsula to San Fernando, Pampanga, about 11 miles south of Fort Stotsenburg. Here, they were jammed into railroad box cars and taken to Camp O'Donnell, near Capas, Tarlac
, about 15 miles north of Fort Stotsenburg.
. Others were brutally murdered by Japanese troops (many of whom were actually from the Japanese colony of Korea
) when they could not keep up with the pace. The men of the Bataan Death March passed by the main gate of Clark Air Base, as the soldiers followed the direction of the railway tracks north. Later, following their initial incarceration at Camp O'Donnell, most American POWs were moved to Cabanatuan, while their Filipino comrades remained at Camp O'Donnell.
Some of the American prisoners who were interred at Camp O'Donnell were sent to Fort Stotsenburg and were forced to perform menial labor for their Japanese conquerors. These prisoners were considered the lucky ones as the others who remained in O'Donnell or Cabanatuan were moved aboard freighters
to Japanese slave labor camps in the home islands. The Japanese refused to mark these vessels with the appropriate insignia
, and many of them fell victim to American submarines, whose crews had no idea that the enemy ships they sent to the bottom carried fellow Americans aboard.
(See also Hell ship
s).
Captain Boyd Wagner
, a native of Nanty Glo, Pennsylvania, was Commander of the 17th Pursuit Squadron on December 8, 1941, when the Japanese attacked Clark Field, and became one of the first American pilots to engage the enemy in the air. Later in the month, he became the first American World War II ace when he downed his fifth Japanese aircraft.
While flying a reconnaissance mission out of Clark, Captain Wagner was jumped by two Japanese Zeroes over Northern Luzon. As a trained aeronautical engineer, he knew a great deal about the performance characteristics of the P-40, and used this knowledge to good advantage.
With the Zeroes in pursuit, Captain Wagner suddenly throttled back, letting the surprised enemy fly over his head. Then he poured machine gun
bullets into their tails, Turning back, the young Captain strafed a Japanese airfield leaving five of the 12 aircraft on the runway in flames.
Wagner High School and Wagner Middle School were named for Captain Wagner, who offered Americans a rare "bright" spot in the otherwise bleak news they were receiving about the defense of the Philippines.
Meyer Levin's father was a poor immigrant tailor who moved his family from Rochester, New York
to Brooklyn
in 1929. Meyer dreamed of becoming an aviator, but his way was blocked by his family's financial situation during the Great Depression
. Instead, Meyer went to the Bedford YMCA
night school and after graduation, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps.
Becoming a bombardier
, Levin flew with Captain Colin Kelly during the days immediately after the December 8 Japanese attack on Clark Field, and miraculously escaped death in the ill-fated flight that claimed Captain Kelly's life. His heroic actions continued to earn him medals and recognition, and by early 1943, he had been promoted to Master Sergeant
. Meyer Levin's last mission took place on January 7, 1943. Assigned with AAC forces in Australia, he volunteered for a bombing mission against an approaching Japanese convoy. The bomber crew soon located the convoy, but decided to wait for additional aircraft to arrive before initiating the attack. As the big aircraft continued to follow the ships, the weather became worse and fuel ran low. Eventually, the crew made the hard decision to ditch the bomber in the water. As the word passed, each man adjusted his parachute and bailed out. Not Meyer Levin: he remained aboard the plane and according to survivors' reports, prepared and dropped the life raft that saved their lives. Master Sergeant Levin did not survive the crash. M/Sgt Meyer Levin of the 64th Bomber Squadron/43rd Bomb Group {Heavy} is listed on the tablets of the missing at Manila National Cemetery. Awards are Distinguished Flying Cross (United States)
; Silver Star
with 2 oak leaf
clusters; Purple Heart
.
. The name appeared first on an 1898 map and is appropriate, because the hill does stand apart from other mountains and hills in the area. From 1903 to 1942, the American forces used Lily Hill primarily as an observation point and the Japanese followed suit when they occupied Clark. During the American attack on Clark, tunnels were dug beneath its surface and it was from this point that the Japanese made their final defense. After World War II, the USAF established it first aircraft warning and control unit which remained on its summit, until relocated to Wallace Air Station
at Poro Point on the Lingayen Gulf
coast in December 1962. In 1955, the underbrush on Lily Hill was burned back, revealing the remains of two Japanese aircraft and many smaller artifacts attesting to Japan's strong defense of Clark.
is located two miles north of the town of Mabalacat on MacArthur Highway, along Clark's eastern perimeter. During the war, the American liberators thought that these suicide planes were flying from Northern Luzon, but in their postwar interrogations, Japanese airmen insisted that the attacks had originated at Clark Field. This fact subsequently was confirmed: two Kamikaze pilots had flown circuitous routes to avoid U.S. fighter patrols, and thus had left the impression that the attacks came from Northern Luzon.
During the course of the American re-invasion of the Philippines, the Japanese conducted extensive counter air operations from Clark Field. Japanese Kamikaze pilots also operated from an airstrip just north of Clark, near Mabalacat, Pampanga, against allied shipping. During the liberation of the Philippines, Americans extensively bombed Clark, thus, for the second time in only a few years, the base came under heavy attack.
Post-war investigations revealed that from the beginning of Allied air attacks on Clark, Nichols, and Nielson fields in October 1944 until February 1945, 1,505 Japanese aircraft were put out of action on the ground. At Clark, the heavy bomber attacks had caused the Japanese to disperse repair shops, storage areas, and maintenance units, scattering them as far as Bamban. Sometimes, parts were hidden or even buried, often becoming inaccessible later. One captured Japanese aircraft needed only one of the carburetors buried at Mabalacat to be ready for flight. In fact, when Allied troops captured Mabalacat, they found over 200 aircraft engines, some of which had never been uncrated.
provided the largest of these contingents, with Mexico
in second place. The P-47 Thunderbolt
-equipped 201st Figher Squadron
of the Fuerza Aérea Expedicionária Mexicana
arrived in the Philippines in early 1945 and participated in the Luzon Campaign, as well as in subsequent operations against Formosa
.
Following the December 8, 1941 air attack on Clark Field and MacArthur's decision to fall back on Bataan, American forces abandoned Fort Stotsenburg. Thus, except for the airdrome itself, the base was spared the ravages of war. When the American counterattack on Stotsenburg began in late 1944, the Japanese made the decision to defend the base at all costs. From beginning to end, the defense lasted more than a month, and even after the base itself had been captured, hold out Japanese troops remained in the foothills of the Zambales Mountains and had to be flushed out one by one. Damage to base facilities was extensive.
Clark's Base Headquarters was nicknamed "The Little Pentagon" because it consisted of five long quonset huts radiating out from a central area. It was built on Henry Avenue at the east end of the Parade Ground in 1947 as administrative offices on the site of the original 217-bed Post Hospital, which dated back to September 1903. Behind the hospital was an open field used for horse grazing, troop drills, and cavalry practice. Old houses still in the area were used as doctors' quarters. On the site of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company
office, were the nurses' quarters. During the Japanese occupation, the old hospital was used both as a dispensary and barracks. Soldiers heated water for bathing in the big steel drums directly in front of the building. Doctors and their families occupied the barns that clustered around the hospital. With the adoption of the 1979 amended Military Bases Agreement and the establishment of Philippine sovereignty over Clark AB, Base Headquarters was moved to the Clark Air Base Compound Building at the intersection of Bong and Dyess Highways. In 1986, workers began demolishing the Pentagon to make for a new Combat Support Group Headquarters Building.
At the end of World War II, Clark Field, like so many other American bases in the Western Pacific, became a dumping ground for battle-damaged equipment. Clark was a major dumping ground for P-38
"Lightnings", the mainstay of the Allied air forces in the Pacific. After being stripped of all usable material, these aircraft were simply pushed into giant pits and covered with dirt. Such "boneyards" exist at several locations on Clark and occasionally, new construction efforts result in the rediscovery of one or more of these almost completely decomposed aircraft and equipment.
Although the Sixth Army's 37th Infantry Division declared that Clark Field and Fort Stotsenburg had been "liberated" on January 31, 1945, remnants of Japanese forces hiding in the Zambales
foothills west of the field could still do some damage.
Clark Field remained an Army Air Base until May 1949, when its facilities were transferred to the U.S. Air Force. Prior to this a build-up of aircraft, air wings and maintenance facilities were already being staged at Clark. On August 14, 1948, the 18th Fighter Wing
was organized at Clark.
In the early 1950s a larger, more modern facility located along O'Leary Avenue, near its intersection with Dyess Highway, was constructed to house the Clark Base Exchange. This structure last housed the Philippine Area Exchange Arcade, a conglomeration of conessionaire businesses.
The Silver Wing Recreation Center, constructed in 1949, provides a host of activities for assigned personnel and their dependents, including tours, musical instruction, chess
, card, and billiard
tournaments. The base telegraph office also occupied space in this large building.
Named for Lieutenant Colin P. Kelly, a B-17 pilot who was killed in action against the Japanese during the air defense of the Philippines, this theater opened in 1953. It served as one of the two auditoria/theaters on Clark, with the other being the Bobbitt theater near the Main Base Exchange. Kelly Theater was located just off Dau Avenue, adjacent to the Kelly Cafeteria.
The Airmen's Open mess was established in Building 5721 on Bong Highway in 1954. Initially known as the "Lower 4 Club" (referring to the rank), this facility later received the name Coconut Grove.
This large stadium, which is to the southwest of the "main base", was completed in 1955. The bowl originally was named Sebille Stadium in honor of Major Louis J. Sebille, a Medal of Honor
recipient, who was killed in action in Korea on August 5, 1950. Since the designation was never made official, the facility was later renamed. While it has played host to numerous sporting and entertainment events, the Bamboo Bowl's "shining hour" came in the spring of 1975, when it and its grounds served as the site for the massive tent city that supported Operations "New Life
" and "Babylift
." In 1986, to honor the memory of the seven astronaut
s who perished aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger
, the stadium was renamed "Challenger Field."
. As a result of the war, the US inherited the Philippines from Spain and established a number of US Army posts throughout the islands, including a large Army post in Manila named Fort William McKinley and an even larger US Army Calvary Post 50 miles north of Manila called Fort Stotsenburg (now Clark). Similarly the US Navy, after Commodore Perry defeated the Spanish Navy in Manila Bay, created naval bases including one at Sangley Point in Cavite. Many of these military installations had post cemeteries, the largest being the cemetery at Fort McKinley
in Manila. During WW II, the Fort McKinley military post cemetery was the scene of heavy fighting because it was strategically situated on a hill that overlooked the city and Manila Bay. During the battle to liberate Manila in early 1945, thousands of graves and cemetery records were lost or damaged, including a large marble obelisk Monument to the Unknown Dead. After the war, in 1946, the US and Philippine Government determined that this same site would be the best location for a new cemetery and memorial to honor those who died throughout Southeast Asia during WW II. However, in order to accommodate as many as 17,000 WW II remains, the US Government had to find a new home for the thousands of non WW II dead already buried there. That new home was to be at Fort Stotsenburg (now Clark). From January to May 1948, all the non WWII dead at the Fort McKinley post cemetery were disinterred and relocated to the newly created military post cemetery at Fort Stotsenburg which today is known as the Clark Veterans Cemetery. Three other older US military post cemeteries were also moved and relocated to this new consolidated non WW II military post cemetery at Fort Stotsenburg. These three cemeteries were the USN Sangley Point Military Cemetery and two smaller and older military cemeteries that had previously existed at Fort Stotsenburg called Stotsenburg I and II. Later, in 1949, Fort Stotsenburg itself was transferred from the Army to the USAF and renamed Clark Air Force Base. This is the present site of the Clark Veterans Cemetery.
The Clark Veterans Cemetery, as it is known today, is located just inside the main gate and consists of 20.365 acres with room for 12,000 plots. Work began on preparation of the new site in 1947 with the first batch of graves arriving from Fort McKinley in January 1948. By December 1950 all of the non WW II dead from Fort McKinley, Sangley Point and Stotsenburg I and II were consolidated in the new Clark Cemetery with 5,056 remains having been relocated; this then enabled construction of the new American Cemetery and Monument in Manila.
Today, the Clark cemetery contains the remains of almost 8,600 individuals with the earliest recorded burial being Private Santiago Belona, a Filipino Scout who served in the US Army and died on January 13, 1900. While there are no records, it is believed he was moved from one of the two old Fort Stotsenburg post cemeteries. In addition to the 650 Filipino Scouts, there are thousands of U.S. veterans from the US Army, Navy, Marine Corps, US Air Force and Coast Guard and their dependents and comprise the preponderance of burials. There are veterans interred who served in every American conflict since the Spanish American War, to include the Philippine American War, WWI, WWII (survivors who died after the war), and the Korean, Vietnam and Iraq Wars. There are also over 2,100 Unknowns buried.
While the vast majority of all burials are American veterans, Filipino Scouts and their dependents, there are some exceptions authorized by the US Government for burial. For example, there are several hundred civilians who served in the US Army Quartermaster Department as Teamsters, Ferriers, Wheelwrights, Blacksmiths and Packers with the majority of these having served in the Spanish American War and Philippine American War who died in the early 1900s when the Army relied solely on civilians to drive the wagons and tend the horses. The cemetery has a fascinating history that includes a female civilian trumpeter who was assigned to the US Army 9th Cavalry who died in 1916, civilian Ordinance Specialists and the Chief Engineer of a US Revenue Cutter, a customs vessel, who died in 1906. In modern military organizations these positions are filled by military.
There are only a handful of foreign nationals buried in the cemetery, and all directly approved and authorized by the US Government and who died on the various military posts such as nine Vietnamese who were among the 30,082 boat people/refugees repatriated by the US Government in 1975 and processed through the Clark Air Force processing center, or one French Navy Commander who died in 1905 or one Third Class Petty Officer of Chinese decent who was serving in the Royal Canadian Navy and died in 1956. But these clearly are the exceptions and in each and every case the US Government approved the burials and was the sole authority to authorize such interments.
From the cemetery’s initial inception and existence on the various military posts from as early as 1900, through their consolidation and move to Fort Stotsenburg in 1948, the cemeteries solely administered by the US Army and US Navy. In 1949 when the USAF assumed responsibility for Fort Stotsenburg and it was officially renamed Clark Field, the USAF assumed sole responsibility for managing the Clark cemetery as attested by the Commander, 13th US Air Force when on July 4, 1984 he dedicated a memorial to the “last active USAF Cemetery outside the United States.” In 1991, Mt. Pinatubo erupted accelerating the departure of the USAF in November 1991. Since then the cemetery has experienced a long and steady march down the road of deterioration, neglect and decay and has since been forgotten.
In 1991 there was a violent and devastating volcanic eruption from nearby Mt. Pinatubo, spewing ash for miles and covering everything with eight to 15 inches of ash. Nowhere is this more evident than the Clark Veterans Cemetery. From a distance, the cemetery looks ok, however on closer inspection it reveals erosion and cracking of many of the headstones, a soft weedy and spongy surface where vegetation grew on top of the ash and an undulating ground surface created when the ash was removed from the flat horizontal stones which now often become covered with debris - - the ash damage is most evident with the lower half of all vertical epitaphs totally hidden from view.
In 1994, veterans from VFW Post 2485 stepped forward and interceded. After witnessing three years of neglect, members of the Post volunteered countless hours removing overgrown vegetation and removing ash. For the next 17 years, VFW Post 2485 has singlehandedly administered and maintained the cemetery in a ‘state of arrested decay’ solely through their own voluntary efforts, donations and hard work. The VFW receives on federal funds for the safekeeping, maintenance, upkeep or administration of this sacred and hallowed ground. By special agreement with the Philippine Government, the cemetery remains open for burials of American Veterans and Filipino Scouts who can present a valid DD Form 214, an official government document given at time of discharge, documenting an individual's military service and entitlement. The VFW Post provides full military honors. There are an average of 40 burials a year, exclusively veterans, including many WW II and Vietnam era warriors. In 2004, a young soldier serving in Iraq was killed in an IED incident and is buried in the cemetery becoming the first Iraq fatality and veteran now interred in Clark.
There are several monuments and commemoratives in the cemetery. The largest, a six and a half foot obelisk marble Monument to Unknown Dead. This monument was constructed of the finest Vermont marble imported from the US to the Philippines in 1907 and erected in the Fort McKinley cemetery and dedicated in 1908 by the Ladies Memorial Association of Manila. The monument was damaged during the fighting to liberate Manila in 1945 and later moved to the new Clark cemetery site in May 1948. A second smaller stone monument was dedicated on the 4th of July, 1984, by the Commander of 13th Air Force honouring the cemetery at Clark as “The last USAF cemetery outside the continental United States”. A third monument exists adjacent to the main entrance of the cemetery. It is a Bataan Death March Monument dedicated to fellow Elks, both American and Filipino, who passed within 100 yards of the cemetery on the Death March trains that carried them from San Fernando to Capas and their final imprisonment at Camp O’Donnell POW facility.
In 2011, an American small business, Peregrine Development International, operating at Clark in conjunction with their Kuwaiti sponsored Global Gateway Logistics City Project, collaborated with the VFW Post 2485 to donate and construct a new perimeter fence and gate to replace the old wrought iron fence that had been half stolen by vandals with the remaining half badly rusted. While these voluntary efforts are commendable, they are insufficient and no substitute to America fulfilling its responsibility to maintain these hallowed grounds.
A Not For Profit organization, the Clark Veterans Restoration Association, was created to promote the rich history, to educate the public and advocate for the US Government to reassume its rightful and obligatory responsibility to administer the cemetery.
Additional information on the cemetery may be found at the VFW cemetery pageand Clark Veterans Cemetery Restoration Association (CVCRA) page.
In 1960, the USAF began construction of a new modern Regional Medical Facility at Clark. The new 200-bed Clark AB Hospital/Regional Medical Center was completed in April 1964 at a cost of $4.5 million. The new hospital occupied the same site (off Dyess Highway near its intersection with O'Leary Avenue) that had been in use for this purpose for some time. The original Fort Stotsenburg hospital had been located at the east end of the Parade Ground, on the site now occupied by the Headquarters Building for the 3d Combat Support Group. There has been much speculation regarding paranormal activity at this site, spurred on partially by an appearance in the SyFy reality series "Ghost Hunters".
As the U.S. became more deeply involved in the war in Southeast Asia, Clark's role as a supporting base became more important and more people were assigned than could be housed in existing permanent quarters. Even new dormitories proved insufficient to meet the influx and so "temporary" housing once again came to Clark.
Prior to the construction of this facility in 1966, transient officers were billeted in quonset huts in the library area and Bachelor Officers Quarters were located in the Hill area. Chambers Hall, which was named for Captain Samuel "Bud" P. Chambers III, who was killed in action while making an approach to Tan Son Nhut, Vietnam
, on June 29, 1965, is located on Bong Highway, just to the west of the Base Library and to the north of the Parade Ground. It contains 30 apartments for bachelor officers and 294 rooms for transients. As large as this facility is, during Thirteenth Air Force operations, such as its periodic Cope Thunder
training exercises, many transients have to be billeted in contracted hotels off-base.
The nerve center for Clark's flying operations was the Base Operations Building. This was opened in 1968 and replaced an earlier structure located in the same area.
Meanwhile, the 3d Tactical Fighter Wing (which had previously been at Bien Hoa Air Base
, Vietnam) moved to Clark Air Base on September 16, 1974 and became the base's host unit, replacing the 405th Tactical Fighter Wing. The 3d Tactical Fighter Wing had inherited the lineage and honors of the 3d Bomb Group, formed in July 1919, when that unit was inactivated. One of its squadrons, the 3d Tactical Fighter Squadron, was the first to be assigned to Clark during the interwar years as the 3d Aero Squadron and later the 3d Pursuit Squadron (Interceptor). The 3d Pursuit participated in the vain attempt to defend against the Japanese air attacks of December 8, 1941, accounting for almost all of the enemy aircraft downed by American fighter planes during that engagement.
ese release of American POWs and an accurate accounting of U.S. servicemen missing or killed in action. Late in 1972, a basic North Vietnamese/American agreement was reached and planning for the repatriation of U.S. POWs initiated. As the major staging base for the American involvement in SEA, it was only natural that U.S. officials designated Clark Air Base as the initial point to which the POWs could return from Hanoi
.
The first group of returnees from Vietnam arrived at Clark at approximately 1615 hours, February 12, 1973. On hand to greet them at planeside were Admiral
Noel Gayler
, Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Command; Lieutenant General
William G. Moore, Thirteenth Air Force Commander; and Air Force Senior Master Sergeant
Homer E. Henderson, Joint Information Bureau Assistant Non-commissioned Officer-in-Charge.
On April 6, 1975, the Clark Air Base Peace Garden was dedicated to the memory of those who died or were declared "missing in action
" in Southeast Asia.
Two years after the ending of America's ground combat role in Southeast Asia and the repatriation of its POWs from North Vietnamese concentration camps, the Communist forces in Vietnam, Laos
, and Cambodia
began to score a stunning series of victories. American response was speedy and typical: a massive evacuation of Vietnamese orphan children that came to be known as Operation Babylift
. This humanitarian effort suffered a major setback on April 4, 1975, when the initial C-5A
Galaxy carrying evacuees crashed shortly after taking off from Saigon's Tan Son Nhut Air Base
, killing 98 children, 46 escorts, and 11 USAF crewmembers. "Babylift" continued despite this incident, however, and as the Communist forces continued their string of successes, it expanded to cover the evacuation of adult refugees from Saigon, Phnom Penh
, and Vientiane
, as well. By this time, the operation's nickname had changed to "New Life", from April 21 to 28 1975, more than 2,000 people were housed in a massive tent city, adjacent to the "Bamboo Bowl" stadium. The first planeload of Vietnamese orphans arrived at Clark on April 5, 1975.
From 1902 to 1979, Fort Stotsenburg/Clark AB remained U.S. possessions, guaranteed by the Military Bases Agreement (MBA) signed by the U.S. and the Republic of the Philippines on March 14, 1947. During 1978, following negotiations that had lasted on and off since the early 1970s, the two governments agreed to establish Philippine sovereignty over former American bases in the country and thus the Clark Air Base Command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines came into being, following the signing of a revised MBA on January 7, 1979. To commemorate this event, the Philippine government constructed an arch based upon the design of a typical native Salakot hat. This structure was erected just in front of the Main Gate on Mitchell Highway, between the base proper and Angeles City and soon became a widely recognized symbol of this new spirit in the long tradition of Philippine-American relations.
One of the most significant developments in Philippine-American relations was the promulgation of the revised 1979 MBA that, for the first time on over 75 years, established Philippine sovereignty over former U.S. Bases in the country. To facilitate its management of base areas outside of those specifically designated as part of the U.S. facility and to supervise perimeter and gate security, the AFP established Clark Air Base Command (CABCOM) on February 16, 1979, and assigned Brigadier General Oscar M. Alejandro as its first Deputy Commander. (Under Philippine regulations, the AFP Chief of Staff served as CABCOM Commander.) By the end of 1983, CABCOM had over 700 personnel assigned, serving in administrative and security posts.
-Philippines was able to bring timely information, news and entertainment programs to the Clark area.
aircraft from the rebel 15th Strike Wing requested permission to land. Their original intent had been to land, refuel and rearm, but the U.S. policy of strict neutrality forbade this. Instead, Washington allowed any aircraft declaring an "emergency" to land for "humanitarian" reasons. By the time the revolution ended, Clark had become "safe haven" for a large segment of the PAF: six T-28s
, five T-33s
, seven F-8s
, two F-47s
, two C-130s
, one MD-500, and two Twin Otters. The presence of these aircraft caused another problem: suppose loyalist forces realized they were present and tried to destroy them from the air or in a ground attack? Fortunately, no such threat materialized but at any rate, USAF forces at Kadena Air Base
and United States Navy aircraft were ready to support Clark if it became necessary.
Clark's most significant role was the evacuation of President Marcos, his immediate family, and several advisors and confidants, including General Fabian Ver
and Eduardo Cojuangco. By February 25, 1986, most of the AFP had switched to the rebel side and loyalist forces from northern Luzon, under Brigadier General Tomas Dumpit, who supposedly were on their way to attack Enrile and Ramos never materialized. President Ronald Reagan
clearly had thrown his support to Aquino and the best that could be hoped for was to beat a safe retreat. Both U.S. Ambassador Steven Bosworth and Joint U.S. Military Advisory Group Brigadier General Theodore Allen were in communication with Malacañang and Clark, as well as Washington. Later in the afternoon of the 25th, the decision was made to evacuate Marcos from the palace. Helicopters from Clark's 31st Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron flew to Manila, picked up the Presidential party, and returned to the base, arriving just after 9 p.m.
The ex-President, his wife and immediate family, along with General Ver, occupied 13AF Distinguished Visitor quarters, while the rest of the entourage had to be billeted in Chambers Hall. Along with the Marcos party, Clark AB personnel packaged up and sent out a considerable amount of "personal effects", the same ones that later were seized by U.S. Customs officials in Hawaii and which became the subject of so much media controversy.
After spending the night on-base, the group, now swelled by several family members of sides and associates who had arrived during the night, boarded a C-9A Nightingale and a C-141 Starlifter
and flew to Guam
and then Hawaii, where President Marcos went into exile.
One of the first of these new facilities, a modern Youth Center, first opened its doors on March 29, 1984. The old Youth Center, which had been housed in the original Kelly Theater, became a skating rink
. This new Youth Center building houses a number of features designed to appeal to the younger members of Clark's community: an airconditioned basketball court
, large screen television, disco
, pool
and ping-pong tables, video games, and a snack bar.
A new Base Commissary was opened in April 1984. Initially begun in 1980, this facility, which contained state-of-the-art equipment and marketing concepts, cost a total of $6.2 million and at the time of its commissioning, was the largest in the world. The new Commissary was located on Dyess Highway, almost next door to the old one and adjacent to the old NCO club.
One of the most long-awaited and most beautiful examples of Clark's new construction boom was the Golf Club House, which was officially opened in August 1985. This modern building offersed the facilities one would expect to find in a club house, as well as a pro shop, a restaurant, and a beautiful panoramic view of the course.
The site of this new building was once part of the old Fort Stotsenburg
cemetery, and during the digging for its foundation, several old iron crosses were uncovered. Time and the elements combined to reduce most of these to rust, but one was still in remarkably good condition and has been preserved for display in the Clark Historical Center.
With the end of the Cold War
, operations at the base were scaled back with many of the men and equipment moving to other bases, including returning to the U.S. In 1990, the last combat aircraft, a squadron of F-4 fighter-bombers, were transferred to Alaska. Then on June 10, 1991, two days before Mount Pinatubo
began the summer-long series of eruptions which destroyed the upper 1000 feet of its peak, Clark Air Base was completely evacuated of all but security personnel on June 10, 1991, never to return.
In July 1991, the U.S. and Philippine government agreed to a new treaty regarding the lease of the Subic Bay Naval Base, Clark, and several other U.S. military installations in the Philippines. Under the agreement, the U.S. was to clean up Clark and turn the base over to the Philippine government in 1992 while leasing Subic Bay for another 10 years. The Philippine Senate rejected this extension of the Military Bases Agreement in September 1991. On November 26, 1991, the U.S. government formally turned Clark over to the Philippine government, which transformed the airfield into the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport
.
Clark Air Base
Clark Air Base is a former United States Air Force base on Luzon Island in the Philippines, located 3 miles west of Angeles City, about 40 miles northwest of Metro Manila. Clark Air Base was an American military facility from 1903 to 1991...
, Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
dates back to the late 19th century when it was settled by Filipino military forces. The United States established a presence at the turn of the century.
The Americans first come to Angeles
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
company working under contract to the colonial Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
administration, had completed the Manila
Manila
Manila is the capital of the Philippines. It is one of the sixteen cities forming Metro Manila.Manila is located on the eastern shores of Manila Bay and is bordered by Navotas and Caloocan to the north, Quezon City to the northeast, San Juan and Mandaluyong to the east, Makati on the southeast,...
-Dagupan
Dagupan
The City of Dagupan is a 1st class city in the Philippines. It is an independent component city of the province of Pangasinan. According to the latest census, Dagupan City has a population of 149,554 people in 25,921 households. Located on Lingayen Gulf on the island of Luzon, Dagupan is the...
Railroad and at the time of America's victory over the Spanish, this still represented the best means of transportation in Luzon. Following the incidents that led to the beginning of US-Philippine hostilities
Philippine-American War
The Philippine–American War, also known as the Philippine War of Independence or the Philippine Insurrection , was an armed conflict between a group of Filipino revolutionaries and the United States which arose from the struggle of the First Philippine Republic to gain independence following...
and Emilio Aguinaldo
Emilio Aguinaldo
Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy was a Filipino general, politician, and independence leader. He played an instrumental role during the Philippines' revolution against Spain, and the subsequent Philippine-American War or War of Philippine Independence that resisted American occupation...
's withdrawal to the north from Manila, the American forces attempted to seize control of this valuable line of communication. The Philippine Army
Philippine Army
The Philippine Army is the ground arm of the Armed Forces of the Philippines . Its official name in Tagalog is Hukbong Katihan ng Pilipinas. On July 23, 2010, President Benigno Aquino III appointed Maj. Gen...
, numbering about 15,000, was just as determined to defend this vital link, and during 1899, fought a series of unsuccessful battles with US forces.
On March 17, 1899, General Aguinaldo moved the seat of his government from Nueva Ecija
Nueva Ecija
Nueva Ecija is a landlocked province of the Philippines located in the Central Luzon region. Its capital is Palayan City...
to the town of Angeles, which lay astride the Manila-Dagupan Railroad, and there celebrated the first anniversary of the Philippine Republic, on June 12, 1899. The Republican government remained hard-pressed by the American advance, and in July, Aguinaldo moved his government again, this time, to the town of Tarlac, further to the north.
The battle for Angeles began on August 13, 1899 and lasted for three days. Opposing the U.S. Army's VIII Corps, commanded by Major General
Major General
Major general or major-general is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. A major general is a high-ranking officer, normally subordinate to the rank of lieutenant general and senior to the ranks of brigadier and brigadier general...
Arthur MacArthur
Arthur MacArthur
Arthur MacArthur may refer to:*Arthur MacArthur, Sr. , lieutenant governor of Wisconsin and acting governor for four days; United States federal judge*Arthur MacArthur, Jr...
, were Philippine forces under the command of Brigadier General
Brigadier General
Brigadier general is a senior rank in the armed forces. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries, usually sitting between the ranks of colonel and major general. When appointed to a field command, a brigadier general is typically in command of a brigade consisting of around 4,000...
Maximino Hizon, Servillano Aquino, Pio del Pilar, Venancio Concepcion, and Tomas Mascardo. The fighting was fierce and bloody and even though Colonel
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
Alberto San Miguel and a General Makabulos brought fresh reinforcements, the Filipinos finally had to withdraw. They took up positions on the Mabalacat
Mabalacat, Pampanga
Mabalacat is a 1st class municipality in the northern part of the province of Pampanga, Philippines. According to the latest census, it has a population of 203,307 people in 35,134 households....
side of the Abacan River and remained there until November 5, when American cavalry flanking movements rendered these positions untenable. After a final day-long bloody engagement on the 5th, Filipino forces withdrew to the north. Meanwhile, American forces already had taken possession of Angeles.
Initially, the American occupation of Angeles was considered temporary, and the troops lived in tents, temporary shelters, or within the town itself. From mid-August until the final action on November 5, 1899, war-time conditions existed because Aguinaldo's rear guard forces held positions just across the Abacan River.
Major Harold M. Clark
Clark Air Base was named for Harold M. Clark, U.S. Army Signal Corps. Born in MinnesotaMinnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
and reared in Manila
Manila
Manila is the capital of the Philippines. It is one of the sixteen cities forming Metro Manila.Manila is located on the eastern shores of Manila Bay and is bordered by Navotas and Caloocan to the north, Quezon City to the northeast, San Juan and Mandaluyong to the east, Makati on the southeast,...
, Clark was commissioned a second lieutenant
Second Lieutenant
Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces.- United Kingdom and Commonwealth :The rank second lieutenant was introduced throughout the British Army in 1871 to replace the rank of ensign , although it had long been used in the Royal Artillery, Royal...
of Cavalry in 1913. In 1916, he transferred to the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps, and in 1917 was rated a Junior Military Aviator.
Clark flew assignments in Columbus, New Mexico
Columbus, New Mexico
Columbus is a village in Luna County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 1,765 at the 2000 census. The town is named after 15th century explorer Christopher Columbus.-History:...
; Kelly Field, Texas; and Fort Sill
Fort Sill
Fort Sill is a United States Army post near Lawton, Oklahoma, about 85 miles southwest of Oklahoma City.Today, Fort Sill remains the only active Army installation of all the forts on the South Plains built during the Indian Wars...
, Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
. He went to Hawaii to command an air service station and was the first United States airman to fly in Hawaii. Upon his return to the United States, Clark served at fields in Washington, D.C. and San Diego, California. After completion of a pursuit course, he was appointed as the commanding officer of a pursuit group of the First Provisional Wing at Mineola
Mineola, New York
Mineola is a village in Nassau County, New York, USA. The population was 18,799 at the 2010 census. The name is derived from a Native American word meaning a "pleasant place"....
, New York.
Clark later became an executive officer with the Aviation Section in Panama
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
. Major Clark died on May 2, 1919 in a seaplane crash in the Miraflores Locks, Panama Canal Zone
Panama Canal Zone
The Panama Canal Zone was a unorganized U.S. territory located within the Republic of Panama, consisting of the Panama Canal and an area generally extending 5 miles on each side of the centerline, but excluding Panama City and Colón, which otherwise would have been partly within the limits of...
and was interred at Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, is a military cemetery in the United States of America, established during the American Civil War on the grounds of Arlington House, formerly the estate of the family of Confederate general Robert E. Lee's wife Mary Anna Lee, a great...
.
Beginnings: The 1910s
American air power in the Western Pacific began in March 1912 when Lieutenant Frank Lahm established the Philippine Air School with one aircraft. Five years later, construction of the first five of eight hangars would begin. The final three hangars would be completed by the 3d Aero Squadron in 1919.The 3d Aero Squadron was Clark Field's first aviation unit. It later became the 3d Tactical Fighter Squadron of the 3d Tactical Fighter Wing and was also stationed at Clark Air Base. With the eruption of Mount Pinatubo
Mount Pinatubo
Mount Pinatubo is an active stratovolcano located on the island of Luzon, near the tripoint of the Philippine provinces of Zambales, Tarlac, and Pampanga. It is located in the Tri-Cabusilan Mountain range separating the west coast of Luzon from the central plains, and is west of the dormant and...
in 1991, the 3d Tactical Fighter Wing was deactivated and is now the United States Air Force's 3d Wing, the host wing for Elmendorf Air Force Base
Elmendorf Air Force Base
Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson is a United States military facility adjacent to Anchorage, the largest city in Alaska. It is an amalgamation of the former United States Air Force Elmendorf Air Force Base and the United States Army Fort Richardson, which were merged in 2010.-Overview:The...
in Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
.
Men of the 3d Aero Squadron of the U.S. Army, began the grueling work of building the first runway at Fort Stotsenburg in 1919. This airfield would be named after Major Harold Clark; when completed Clark Field became the only American airdrome west of Hawaii.
The fledgling U.S. Army Air Corps was forced to use a variety of aircraft from different sources to keep its units up to strength. Around 1920, World War I SPAD S.VII
SPAD S.VII
The SPAD S.VII was the first of a series of highly successful biplane fighter aircraft produced by Société Pour L'Aviation et ses Dérivés during the First World War. Like its successors, the S.VII was renowned as a sturdy and rugged aircraft with good climbing and diving characteristics...
s of French manufacture were deployed to Clark Field.
Housing on Base
The first airmen at Clark Field constructed their "dormitories" in September 1919. The 20-man tents were put up under a canopy of cogon grass, which cooled the interiors. By 1920, a 200-bed capacity single enlisted quarters with natural air-conditioning provided by large, unscreened windows had replaced the 3d Aero Squadron's original tents.After the establishment of Clark Field, new family and bachelor officers quarters were needed. In 1920, construction of eight "barns" were completed near what is now the intersection of Dau Avenue and Marrat Highway.
The 1920s
It was in the 1920s that the Martin
Glenn L. Martin Company
The Glenn L. Martin Company was an American aircraft and aerospace manufacturing company that was founded by the aviation pioneer Glenn L. Martin. The Martin Company produced many important aircraft for the defense of the United States and its allies, especially during World War II and the Cold War...
MB-2 biplane
Biplane
A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two superimposed main wings. The Wright brothers' Wright Flyer used a biplane design, as did most aircraft in the early years of aviation. While a biplane wing structure has a structural advantage, it produces more drag than a similar monoplane wing...
was introduced and subsequently extensively used for Clark Field operations. The U.S. Army Air Service contingent in the Philippines consisted of the 28th Bombardment and 3rd Pursuit Squadrons, forming the 4th Composite Group.
Philippine Revolution
The Philippine Revolution , called the "Tagalog War" by the Spanish, was an armed military conflict between the people of the Philippines and the Spanish colonial authorities which resulted in the secession of the Philippine Islands from the Spanish Empire.The Philippine Revolution began in August...
, General Emilio Aguinaldo, whom he had helped capture.
In the 1920s the 2nd Battalion of the 24th Field Artillery Regiment was activated and regularly went to Camp O'Donnell
Camp O'Donnell
Camp O'Donnell was a facility of the United States Air Force in Capas, Tarlac, The Philippines. Before the facility was transferred to the Air Force, it was first a Philippine Constabulary post then a United States Army facility....
for target practice or to Lingayen, Pangasinan
Lingayen, Pangasinan
Lingayen is a 1st class municipality in the province of Pangasinan on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. It is the capital municipality and the seat of government of the province of Pangasinan. According to the latest census, it has a population of 95,773 people in 16,467 households.Lingayen...
for maneuvers with all U.S. forces based on Luzon. This regiment was composed of Philippine Scouts who were led by officers derived from the Regular Army
Regular Army
The Regular Army of the United States was and is the successor to the Continental Army as the country's permanent, professional military establishment. Even in modern times the professional core of the United States Army continues to be called the Regular Army...
or from the ranks of Filipino officers who had attended West Point
United States Military Academy
The United States Military Academy at West Point is a four-year coeducational federal service academy located at West Point, New York. The academy sits on scenic high ground overlooking the Hudson River, north of New York City...
.
The 1930s
Martin B-10
The Martin B-10 was the first all-metal monoplane bomber to go into regular use by the United States Army Air Corps, entering service in June 1934...
s were stationed at Clark Field with the 28th Bombardment Squadron in the late 1930s. When the 28th received new B-17s, three of these very outmoded B-10s were transferred to the Philippine Army Air Corps
Philippine Army Air Corps
The Philippine Army Air Corps was created by the Philippine National Assembly's National Defense Act of 1935. By 1940, the corps had around 40 aircraft and 100 pilots, 500 personnel, and six squadrons...
.
The Attack
Douglas MacArthur
General of the Army Douglas MacArthur was an American general and field marshal of the Philippine Army. He was a Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the 1930s and played a prominent role in the Pacific theater during World War II. He received the Medal of Honor for his service in the...
, who recently had been called back to active service and placed in command of all U.S. and Philippine forces, had known of the attack on Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...
since about five in the morning, but insisted on delaying any hostile act by the forces under his command until the Japanese committed an overt attack on the Philippines. Major General Lewis H. Brereton
Lewis H. Brereton
Lewis Hyde Brereton was a military aviation pioneer and lieutenant general in the United States Air Force...
, Far East Air Force
United States Far East Air Force
The Far East Air Force was the military aviation arm of the United States Army in the Philippines just prior to and at the beginning of World War II. Formed on 16 November 1941, FEAF was the predecessor of the Fifth Air Force of the United States Army Air Forces and United States Air...
Commander, argued in vain that his bombers at Clark should be allowed to strike military targets on Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
, the location from which everyone felt the Japanese attack would come. Meanwhile, the B-17s at Clark were loaded first with anti-ship ordnance. Later, that order was rescinded and different bombs were uploaded for use against Japanese airfields on Taiwan. Eventually, Brereton got permission to send one B-17 on a reconnaissance mission to the north. When the attack came, maintenance crews were in the process of preparing the one reconnaissance plane, changing the bomb loads in the other B-17s, and refueling the fighters, which had just come in from patrol. The aircrews were eating lunch. They were sitting ducks.
On December 8, 1941, the US Far East Air Force consisted of the 19th Bombardment Group (Heavy) under Colonel Eugene L. Eubank at Clark and the 24th Pursuit Group under Colonel Orrin L. Glover, also at Clark. The 19th had
- 3 B-17s assigned and consisted of the 28th and 30th Squadrons (8 B-17s and 2 B-18s) at Del Monte FieldDel Monte FieldDel Monte Field was a heavy bomber capable airfield located on Mindanao in the Philippines. The airfield was located in a meadow of a Del Monte Corporation pineapple plantation.-Overview:...
on MindanaoMindanaoMindanao is the second largest and easternmost island in the Philippines. It is also the name of one of the three island groups in the country, which consists of the island of Mindanao and smaller surrounding islands. The other two are Luzon and the Visayas. The island of Mindanao is called The...
, a total of 13 craft - the 24th Pursuit Group with its outmoded 18 P-35sSeversky P-35The Seversky P-35 was a fighter aircraft built in the United States by the Seversky Aircraft Company in the late 1930s. A contemporary of the Hawker Hurricane and Messerschmitt Bf 109, the P-35 was the first single-seat fighter in U.S...
was at nearby Del Carmen Field, now Basa Air BaseBasa Air BaseBasa Air Base , is a Philippine Air Force base located at Floridablanca, Pampanga in the Philippines....
, 18 craft - the 24th Group consisted of the 3rd Pursuit Squadron (18 P-40Curtiss P-40The Curtiss P-40 Warhawk was an American single-engine, single-seat, all-metal fighter and ground attack aircraft that first flew in 1938. The P-40 design was a modification of the previous Curtiss P-36 Hawk which reduced development time and enabled a rapid entry into production and operational...
Es) at Iba and the 17th and 21st Squadrons, with 18 P-40Es each, at Nichols FieldNichols FieldNichols Field was a U.S. military airfield located south of Manila in Pasay City and Parañaque City, Metro Manila, Luzon, the Philippines. During the World War II era, it was the location of the Far East Air Force's U.S. 20th Air Base Group. Also, based here was Troop F of the U.S. 26th Cavalry...
, Manila, now Villamor Air Base, a total of 54 craft - the 2nd Observation Squadron also had O-46 and O-52Curtiss O-52|-See also:-References:NotesBibliography* Donald, David. American Warplanes of World War II. London: Aerospace Publishing, 1995. ISBN 1-874023-72-7....
aircraft at Clark - Philippine Army Air Corps assets were old and few: 42 PT-13Boeing Stearman|-See also:-Bibliography:* Avis, Jim and Bowman, Martin. Stearman: A Pictorial History. Motorbooks, 1997. ISBN 0-76030-479-3.* Bowers, Peter M. Boeing Aircraft since 1916. London:Putnam, 1989. ISBN 0-85177-804-6....
trainers, 12 P-26P-26 PeashooterThe American Boeing P-26 Peashooter, was the first all-metal production fighter aircraft and the first pursuit monoplane used by the United States Army Air Corps...
fighers, and three B-10s, a total of 57 craft.
The total number of available military airplanes at that moment was over 142 aircraft (not counting the O-46s and O-52s). Within a few hours, despite heroic efforts, almost all of these aircraft, with the exception of the ones deployed to Mindanao, were gone.
Following the Japanese air attacks on Clark Field and other military areas in the Philippines on December 8, 1941, and the subsequent landing of Japanese ground forces on Luzon, General Douglas MacArthur activated War Plan Orange
War Plan Orange
War Plan Orange refers to a series of United States Joint Army and Navy Board war plans for dealing with a possible war with Japan during the years between the First and Second World Wars....
. This plan called for the gradual withdrawal of American and Philippine forces south past several defensive positions (one of which ran through Tarlac, just north of Clark) to the Bataan
Bataan
Bataan is a province of the Philippines occupying the whole of the Bataan Peninsula on Luzon. The province is part of the Central Luzon region. The capital of Bataan is Balanga City and it is bordered by the provinces of Zambales and Pampanga to the north...
Peninsula, where they could await reinforcements from Hawaii and the U.S. The defense of Bataan in the face of vastly overwhelming numbers and terrible battle conditions proved beyond a doubt the capabilities of the untested allied forces. At one point during this period in early 1942, Philippine Brigadier General Vicente Lim
Vicente Lim
Brigadier General Vicente Lim was an Filipino General in the Philippine Army who served during the Second World War.-Early life:He was born in the town of Calamba, Laguna, on the 24th of February, 1888, the third of Jose Ayala Lim-Yaoco’s four children. His father was a full-blooded Chinese who...
established his headquarters in a pigpen.
After the collapse of American/Filipino defense lines on Bataan and the decisions to declare Manila an open city
Open city
In war, in the event of the imminent capture of a city, the government/military structure of the nation that controls the city will sometimes declare it an open city, thus announcing that they have abandoned all defensive efforts....
to end the defense of Corregidor
Corregidor
Corregidor Island, locally called Isla ng Corregidor, is a lofty island located at the entrance of Manila Bay in southwestern part of Luzon Island in the Philippines. Due to this location, Corregidor was fortified with several coastal artillery and ammunition magazines to defend the entrance of...
, American and Filipino
Filipino people
The Filipino people or Filipinos are an Austronesian ethnic group native to the islands of the Philippines. There are about 92 million Filipinos in the Philippines, and about 11 million living outside the Philippines ....
prisoners of war were marched at gunpoint back up the Bataan Peninsula to San Fernando, Pampanga, about 11 miles south of Fort Stotsenburg. Here, they were jammed into railroad box cars and taken to Camp O'Donnell, near Capas, Tarlac
Capas, Tarlac
Capas is a first class municipality in the province of Tarlac, Philippines. According to the latest census, it has a population of 122,084 people in 18,333 households. It is a part of the Third Municipal district of Tarlac with Mayor Antonio "TJ" Capitulo Rodriguez, Jr. as its incumbent Mayor and...
, about 15 miles north of Fort Stotsenburg.
Bataan Death March
Thousands of American and Filipino soldiers died of their wounds on the infamous Bataan Death MarchBataan Death March
The Bataan Death March was the forcible transfer, by the Imperial Japanese Army, of 75,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war after the three-month Battle of Bataan in the Philippines during World War II, which resulted in the deaths of thousands of prisoners.The march was characterized by...
. Others were brutally murdered by Japanese troops (many of whom were actually from the Japanese colony of Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
) when they could not keep up with the pace. The men of the Bataan Death March passed by the main gate of Clark Air Base, as the soldiers followed the direction of the railway tracks north. Later, following their initial incarceration at Camp O'Donnell, most American POWs were moved to Cabanatuan, while their Filipino comrades remained at Camp O'Donnell.
Some of the American prisoners who were interred at Camp O'Donnell were sent to Fort Stotsenburg and were forced to perform menial labor for their Japanese conquerors. These prisoners were considered the lucky ones as the others who remained in O'Donnell or Cabanatuan were moved aboard freighters
Cargo ship
A cargo ship or freighter is any sort of ship or vessel that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year; they handle the bulk of international trade...
to Japanese slave labor camps in the home islands. The Japanese refused to mark these vessels with the appropriate insignia
Insignia
Insignia or insigne pl -nia or -nias : a symbol or token of personal power, status or office, or of an official body of government or jurisdiction...
, and many of them fell victim to American submarines, whose crews had no idea that the enemy ships they sent to the bottom carried fellow Americans aboard.
(See also Hell ship
Hell Ship
A hell ship is a ship with extremely unpleasant living conditions or with a reputation for cruelty among the crew. It now generally refers to the ships used by the Imperial Japanese Navy to transport Allied prisoners of war out of the Philippines, Hong Kong and Singapore during World War II. The...
s).
Boyd D. "Buzz" Wagner
Boyd Wagner
Lt. Col. Boyd David "Buzz" Wagner was an American aviator and the first USAAF fighter ace of World War II....
, a native of Nanty Glo, Pennsylvania, was Commander of the 17th Pursuit Squadron on December 8, 1941, when the Japanese attacked Clark Field, and became one of the first American pilots to engage the enemy in the air. Later in the month, he became the first American World War II ace when he downed his fifth Japanese aircraft.
While flying a reconnaissance mission out of Clark, Captain Wagner was jumped by two Japanese Zeroes over Northern Luzon. As a trained aeronautical engineer, he knew a great deal about the performance characteristics of the P-40, and used this knowledge to good advantage.
With the Zeroes in pursuit, Captain Wagner suddenly throttled back, letting the surprised enemy fly over his head. Then he poured machine gun
Machine gun
A machine gun is a fully automatic mounted or portable firearm, usually designed to fire rounds in quick succession from an ammunition belt or large-capacity magazine, typically at a rate of several hundred rounds per minute....
bullets into their tails, Turning back, the young Captain strafed a Japanese airfield leaving five of the 12 aircraft on the runway in flames.
Wagner High School and Wagner Middle School were named for Captain Wagner, who offered Americans a rare "bright" spot in the otherwise bleak news they were receiving about the defense of the Philippines.
Meyer S. Levin
In 1955, for the first time at Clark, a building was named for an enlisted man: the Meyer Levin Gymnasium on Dau Avenue, just east of the Parade Ground.Meyer Levin's father was a poor immigrant tailor who moved his family from Rochester, New York
Rochester, New York
Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...
to Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
in 1929. Meyer dreamed of becoming an aviator, but his way was blocked by his family's financial situation during the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
. Instead, Meyer went to the Bedford YMCA
YMCA
The Young Men's Christian Association is a worldwide organization of more than 45 million members from 125 national federations affiliated through the World Alliance of YMCAs...
night school and after graduation, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps.
Becoming a bombardier
Bombardier (air force)
A bombardier , in the United States Army Air Forces and United States Air Force, or a bomb aimer, in the Royal Air Force and other Commonwealth air forces, was the crewman of a bomber responsible for assisting the navigator in guiding the plane to a bombing target and releasing the aircraft's bomb...
, Levin flew with Captain Colin Kelly during the days immediately after the December 8 Japanese attack on Clark Field, and miraculously escaped death in the ill-fated flight that claimed Captain Kelly's life. His heroic actions continued to earn him medals and recognition, and by early 1943, he had been promoted to Master Sergeant
Master Sergeant
A master sergeant is the military rank for a senior non-commissioned officer in some armed forces.-Israel Defense Forces:Rav samal rishoninsignia IDF...
. Meyer Levin's last mission took place on January 7, 1943. Assigned with AAC forces in Australia, he volunteered for a bombing mission against an approaching Japanese convoy. The bomber crew soon located the convoy, but decided to wait for additional aircraft to arrive before initiating the attack. As the big aircraft continued to follow the ships, the weather became worse and fuel ran low. Eventually, the crew made the hard decision to ditch the bomber in the water. As the word passed, each man adjusted his parachute and bailed out. Not Meyer Levin: he remained aboard the plane and according to survivors' reports, prepared and dropped the life raft that saved their lives. Master Sergeant Levin did not survive the crash. M/Sgt Meyer Levin of the 64th Bomber Squadron/43rd Bomb Group {Heavy} is listed on the tablets of the missing at Manila National Cemetery. Awards are Distinguished Flying Cross (United States)
Distinguished Flying Cross (United States)
The Distinguished Flying Cross is a medal awarded to any officer or enlisted member of the United States armed forces who distinguishes himself or herself in support of operations by "heroism or extraordinary achievement while participating in an aerial flight, subsequent to November 11, 1918." The...
; Silver Star
Silver Star
The Silver Star is the third-highest combat military decoration that can be awarded to a member of any branch of the United States armed forces for valor in the face of the enemy....
with 2 oak leaf
Oak Leaf
Oak leaf may refer to:Military* Oak leaf cluster, a U.S. military decoration* A bronze oak leaf device is also used to signify a Mention in Despatches or the award of the Queen's Commendation for Valuable Service in Commonwealth militaries...
clusters; Purple Heart
Purple Heart
The Purple Heart is a United States military decoration awarded in the name of the President to those who have been wounded or killed while serving on or after April 5, 1917 with the U.S. military. The National Purple Heart Hall of Honor is located in New Windsor, New York...
.
Lily Hill
The origin of this name probably derives from the word for "lost" (lili) in the Kapampangan languageKapampangan language
The Pampangan language, or Kapampangan , is one of the major languages of the Philippines. It is the language spoken in the province of Pampanga, the southern half of the province of Tarlac and the northern portion of the province of Bataan. Kapampangan is also understood in some barangays of...
. The name appeared first on an 1898 map and is appropriate, because the hill does stand apart from other mountains and hills in the area. From 1903 to 1942, the American forces used Lily Hill primarily as an observation point and the Japanese followed suit when they occupied Clark. During the American attack on Clark, tunnels were dug beneath its surface and it was from this point that the Japanese made their final defense. After World War II, the USAF established it first aircraft warning and control unit which remained on its summit, until relocated to Wallace Air Station
Wallace Air Station
Wallace Air Station was a United States Air Force facility located in San Fernando, La Union, Luzon Island, The Philippines.-History and Background:...
at Poro Point on the Lingayen Gulf
Lingayen Gulf
The Lingayen Gulf is an extension of the South China Sea on Luzon in the Philippines stretching . It is framed by the provinces of Pangasinan and La Union and sits between the Zambales Mountains and the Cordillera Central...
coast in December 1962. In 1955, the underbrush on Lily Hill was burned back, revealing the remains of two Japanese aircraft and many smaller artifacts attesting to Japan's strong defense of Clark.
Birthplace of the Kamikaze
A marker, naming the birthplace of the KamikazeKamikaze
The were suicide attacks by military aviators from the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, designed to destroy as many warships as possible....
is located two miles north of the town of Mabalacat on MacArthur Highway, along Clark's eastern perimeter. During the war, the American liberators thought that these suicide planes were flying from Northern Luzon, but in their postwar interrogations, Japanese airmen insisted that the attacks had originated at Clark Field. This fact subsequently was confirmed: two Kamikaze pilots had flown circuitous routes to avoid U.S. fighter patrols, and thus had left the impression that the attacks came from Northern Luzon.
During the course of the American re-invasion of the Philippines, the Japanese conducted extensive counter air operations from Clark Field. Japanese Kamikaze pilots also operated from an airstrip just north of Clark, near Mabalacat, Pampanga, against allied shipping. During the liberation of the Philippines, Americans extensively bombed Clark, thus, for the second time in only a few years, the base came under heavy attack.
Post-war investigations revealed that from the beginning of Allied air attacks on Clark, Nichols, and Nielson fields in October 1944 until February 1945, 1,505 Japanese aircraft were put out of action on the ground. At Clark, the heavy bomber attacks had caused the Japanese to disperse repair shops, storage areas, and maintenance units, scattering them as far as Bamban. Sometimes, parts were hidden or even buried, often becoming inaccessible later. One captured Japanese aircraft needed only one of the carburetors buried at Mabalacat to be ready for flight. In fact, when Allied troops captured Mabalacat, they found over 200 aircraft engines, some of which had never been uncrated.
201st Fighter Squadron, Fuerza Aérea Expedicionária Mexicana
During World War II, the U.S. Army Air Corps undertook the training of several contingents of personnel from many South American nations. BrazilBrazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
provided the largest of these contingents, with Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
in second place. The P-47 Thunderbolt
P-47 Thunderbolt
Republic Aviation's P-47 Thunderbolt, also known as the "Jug", was the largest, heaviest, and most expensive fighter aircraft in history to be powered by a single reciprocating engine. It was heavily armed with eight .50-caliber machine guns, four per wing. When fully loaded, the P-47 weighed up to...
-equipped 201st Figher Squadron
Escuadrón 201
El Escuadrón 201 was a Mexican fighter squadron, part of the Fuerza Aérea Expedicionaria Mexicana that aided the Allied war effort during World War II...
of the Fuerza Aérea Expedicionária Mexicana
Mexican Air Force
The Mexican Air Force is the aviation branch of the Mexican Army and depends on the National Defense Secretariat . Since 2008, its commander is Gen...
arrived in the Philippines in early 1945 and participated in the Luzon Campaign, as well as in subsequent operations against Formosa
Formosa
Formosa or Ilha Formosa is a Portuguese historical name for Taiwan , literally meaning, "Beautiful Island". The term may also refer to:-Places:* Formosa Strait, another name for the Taiwan Strait...
.
Sneak Attacks and Japanese Land Defense of Clark
The Task of Reconstruction: The Late-1940s and the 1950s
Post World War II, Clark Field saw a building boom, with barracks, operations, and storage buildings being constructed at a breakneck pace. Constructed during this period were "liberation barracks", which housed enlisted men, a base operations building, a post office building, an outdoor movie theater, the NCO Open Mess, and the Clark AB golf course, once one of the finest golf courses on any U.S. military installation in the world, and the renovation of the Officers' Restaurant and the Clark Air Base Officers' Open Mess (CABOOM). Religious facilities would also be constructed.Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company
The Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company commonly known as PLDT, is the largest telecommunications company in the Philippines. PLDT is also the largest company in the Philippines, ranked 1138th in the April 2009 update, and 1080th in the April 2010 update, of Forbes' Global 2000 list...
office, were the nurses' quarters. During the Japanese occupation, the old hospital was used both as a dispensary and barracks. Soldiers heated water for bathing in the big steel drums directly in front of the building. Doctors and their families occupied the barns that clustered around the hospital. With the adoption of the 1979 amended Military Bases Agreement and the establishment of Philippine sovereignty over Clark AB, Base Headquarters was moved to the Clark Air Base Compound Building at the intersection of Bong and Dyess Highways. In 1986, workers began demolishing the Pentagon to make for a new Combat Support Group Headquarters Building.
At the end of World War II, Clark Field, like so many other American bases in the Western Pacific, became a dumping ground for battle-damaged equipment. Clark was a major dumping ground for P-38
P-38 Lightning
The Lockheed P-38 Lightning was a World War II American fighter aircraft built by Lockheed. Developed to a United States Army Air Corps requirement, the P-38 had distinctive twin booms and a single, central nacelle containing the cockpit and armament...
"Lightnings", the mainstay of the Allied air forces in the Pacific. After being stripped of all usable material, these aircraft were simply pushed into giant pits and covered with dirt. Such "boneyards" exist at several locations on Clark and occasionally, new construction efforts result in the rediscovery of one or more of these almost completely decomposed aircraft and equipment.
Although the Sixth Army's 37th Infantry Division declared that Clark Field and Fort Stotsenburg had been "liberated" on January 31, 1945, remnants of Japanese forces hiding in the Zambales
Zambales
Zambales is a province of the Philippines located in the Central Luzon region. Its capital is Iba. Zambales borders Pangasinan to the north, Tarlac and Pampanga to the east, and Bataan to the south. The province lies between the South China Sea and the Zambales Mountains. With a land area of...
foothills west of the field could still do some damage.
From the Army to the Air Force
18th Wing
The United States Air Force's 18th Wing is the host wing for Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Japan and is the Air Force’s largest combat wing. It is the largest and principal organization in the Pacific Air Forces Fifth Air Force....
was organized at Clark.
In the early 1950s a larger, more modern facility located along O'Leary Avenue, near its intersection with Dyess Highway, was constructed to house the Clark Base Exchange. This structure last housed the Philippine Area Exchange Arcade, a conglomeration of conessionaire businesses.
The Silver Wing Recreation Center, constructed in 1949, provides a host of activities for assigned personnel and their dependents, including tours, musical instruction, chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
, card, and billiard
Billiard
-Games:* A , a type of shot in cue sports * Billiards: cue sports in general, including pool, carom billiards, snooker, etc.; the term "billiards" by itself is also sometimes used to refer to any of the following more specifically:...
tournaments. The base telegraph office also occupied space in this large building.
Named for Lieutenant Colin P. Kelly, a B-17 pilot who was killed in action against the Japanese during the air defense of the Philippines, this theater opened in 1953. It served as one of the two auditoria/theaters on Clark, with the other being the Bobbitt theater near the Main Base Exchange. Kelly Theater was located just off Dau Avenue, adjacent to the Kelly Cafeteria.
The Airmen's Open mess was established in Building 5721 on Bong Highway in 1954. Initially known as the "Lower 4 Club" (referring to the rank), this facility later received the name Coconut Grove.
This large stadium, which is to the southwest of the "main base", was completed in 1955. The bowl originally was named Sebille Stadium in honor of Major Louis J. Sebille, a Medal of Honor
Medal of Honor
The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration awarded by the United States government. It is bestowed by the President, in the name of Congress, upon members of the United States Armed Forces who distinguish themselves through "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his or her...
recipient, who was killed in action in Korea on August 5, 1950. Since the designation was never made official, the facility was later renamed. While it has played host to numerous sporting and entertainment events, the Bamboo Bowl's "shining hour" came in the spring of 1975, when it and its grounds served as the site for the massive tent city that supported Operations "New Life
Operation New Life
Operation New Life was the U.S. military evacuation of about 110,000 Southeast Asian refugees displaced by the Vietnam War out of South Vietnam....
" and "Babylift
Operation Babylift
Operation Babylift was the name given to the mass evacuation of children from South Vietnam to the United States and other countries at the end of the Vietnam War , from April 3–26, 1975...
." In 1986, to honor the memory of the seven astronaut
Astronaut
An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....
s who perished aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger
Space Shuttle Challenger
Space Shuttle Challenger was NASA's second Space Shuttle orbiter to be put into service, Columbia having been the first. The shuttle was built by Rockwell International's Space Transportation Systems Division in Downey, California...
, the stadium was renamed "Challenger Field."
History of the Clark Veterans Cemetery
The Clark Veterans Cemetery can trace its history to 1900 after the conclusion of the Spanish-American WarSpanish-American War
The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence...
. As a result of the war, the US inherited the Philippines from Spain and established a number of US Army posts throughout the islands, including a large Army post in Manila named Fort William McKinley and an even larger US Army Calvary Post 50 miles north of Manila called Fort Stotsenburg (now Clark). Similarly the US Navy, after Commodore Perry defeated the Spanish Navy in Manila Bay, created naval bases including one at Sangley Point in Cavite. Many of these military installations had post cemeteries, the largest being the cemetery at Fort McKinley
Fort McKinley
Several places have been named Fort McKinley* Fort William McKinley * Fort McKinley, Maine* Fort McKinley, Ohio--------------------------------------------------------------------------------...
in Manila. During WW II, the Fort McKinley military post cemetery was the scene of heavy fighting because it was strategically situated on a hill that overlooked the city and Manila Bay. During the battle to liberate Manila in early 1945, thousands of graves and cemetery records were lost or damaged, including a large marble obelisk Monument to the Unknown Dead. After the war, in 1946, the US and Philippine Government determined that this same site would be the best location for a new cemetery and memorial to honor those who died throughout Southeast Asia during WW II. However, in order to accommodate as many as 17,000 WW II remains, the US Government had to find a new home for the thousands of non WW II dead already buried there. That new home was to be at Fort Stotsenburg (now Clark). From January to May 1948, all the non WWII dead at the Fort McKinley post cemetery were disinterred and relocated to the newly created military post cemetery at Fort Stotsenburg which today is known as the Clark Veterans Cemetery. Three other older US military post cemeteries were also moved and relocated to this new consolidated non WW II military post cemetery at Fort Stotsenburg. These three cemeteries were the USN Sangley Point Military Cemetery and two smaller and older military cemeteries that had previously existed at Fort Stotsenburg called Stotsenburg I and II. Later, in 1949, Fort Stotsenburg itself was transferred from the Army to the USAF and renamed Clark Air Force Base. This is the present site of the Clark Veterans Cemetery.
The Clark Veterans Cemetery, as it is known today, is located just inside the main gate and consists of 20.365 acres with room for 12,000 plots. Work began on preparation of the new site in 1947 with the first batch of graves arriving from Fort McKinley in January 1948. By December 1950 all of the non WW II dead from Fort McKinley, Sangley Point and Stotsenburg I and II were consolidated in the new Clark Cemetery with 5,056 remains having been relocated; this then enabled construction of the new American Cemetery and Monument in Manila.
Today, the Clark cemetery contains the remains of almost 8,600 individuals with the earliest recorded burial being Private Santiago Belona, a Filipino Scout who served in the US Army and died on January 13, 1900. While there are no records, it is believed he was moved from one of the two old Fort Stotsenburg post cemeteries. In addition to the 650 Filipino Scouts, there are thousands of U.S. veterans from the US Army, Navy, Marine Corps, US Air Force and Coast Guard and their dependents and comprise the preponderance of burials. There are veterans interred who served in every American conflict since the Spanish American War, to include the Philippine American War, WWI, WWII (survivors who died after the war), and the Korean, Vietnam and Iraq Wars. There are also over 2,100 Unknowns buried.
While the vast majority of all burials are American veterans, Filipino Scouts and their dependents, there are some exceptions authorized by the US Government for burial. For example, there are several hundred civilians who served in the US Army Quartermaster Department as Teamsters, Ferriers, Wheelwrights, Blacksmiths and Packers with the majority of these having served in the Spanish American War and Philippine American War who died in the early 1900s when the Army relied solely on civilians to drive the wagons and tend the horses. The cemetery has a fascinating history that includes a female civilian trumpeter who was assigned to the US Army 9th Cavalry who died in 1916, civilian Ordinance Specialists and the Chief Engineer of a US Revenue Cutter, a customs vessel, who died in 1906. In modern military organizations these positions are filled by military.
There are only a handful of foreign nationals buried in the cemetery, and all directly approved and authorized by the US Government and who died on the various military posts such as nine Vietnamese who were among the 30,082 boat people/refugees repatriated by the US Government in 1975 and processed through the Clark Air Force processing center, or one French Navy Commander who died in 1905 or one Third Class Petty Officer of Chinese decent who was serving in the Royal Canadian Navy and died in 1956. But these clearly are the exceptions and in each and every case the US Government approved the burials and was the sole authority to authorize such interments.
From the cemetery’s initial inception and existence on the various military posts from as early as 1900, through their consolidation and move to Fort Stotsenburg in 1948, the cemeteries solely administered by the US Army and US Navy. In 1949 when the USAF assumed responsibility for Fort Stotsenburg and it was officially renamed Clark Field, the USAF assumed sole responsibility for managing the Clark cemetery as attested by the Commander, 13th US Air Force when on July 4, 1984 he dedicated a memorial to the “last active USAF Cemetery outside the United States.” In 1991, Mt. Pinatubo erupted accelerating the departure of the USAF in November 1991. Since then the cemetery has experienced a long and steady march down the road of deterioration, neglect and decay and has since been forgotten.
In 1991 there was a violent and devastating volcanic eruption from nearby Mt. Pinatubo, spewing ash for miles and covering everything with eight to 15 inches of ash. Nowhere is this more evident than the Clark Veterans Cemetery. From a distance, the cemetery looks ok, however on closer inspection it reveals erosion and cracking of many of the headstones, a soft weedy and spongy surface where vegetation grew on top of the ash and an undulating ground surface created when the ash was removed from the flat horizontal stones which now often become covered with debris - - the ash damage is most evident with the lower half of all vertical epitaphs totally hidden from view.
In 1994, veterans from VFW Post 2485 stepped forward and interceded. After witnessing three years of neglect, members of the Post volunteered countless hours removing overgrown vegetation and removing ash. For the next 17 years, VFW Post 2485 has singlehandedly administered and maintained the cemetery in a ‘state of arrested decay’ solely through their own voluntary efforts, donations and hard work. The VFW receives on federal funds for the safekeeping, maintenance, upkeep or administration of this sacred and hallowed ground. By special agreement with the Philippine Government, the cemetery remains open for burials of American Veterans and Filipino Scouts who can present a valid DD Form 214, an official government document given at time of discharge, documenting an individual's military service and entitlement. The VFW Post provides full military honors. There are an average of 40 burials a year, exclusively veterans, including many WW II and Vietnam era warriors. In 2004, a young soldier serving in Iraq was killed in an IED incident and is buried in the cemetery becoming the first Iraq fatality and veteran now interred in Clark.
There are several monuments and commemoratives in the cemetery. The largest, a six and a half foot obelisk marble Monument to Unknown Dead. This monument was constructed of the finest Vermont marble imported from the US to the Philippines in 1907 and erected in the Fort McKinley cemetery and dedicated in 1908 by the Ladies Memorial Association of Manila. The monument was damaged during the fighting to liberate Manila in 1945 and later moved to the new Clark cemetery site in May 1948. A second smaller stone monument was dedicated on the 4th of July, 1984, by the Commander of 13th Air Force honouring the cemetery at Clark as “The last USAF cemetery outside the continental United States”. A third monument exists adjacent to the main entrance of the cemetery. It is a Bataan Death March Monument dedicated to fellow Elks, both American and Filipino, who passed within 100 yards of the cemetery on the Death March trains that carried them from San Fernando to Capas and their final imprisonment at Camp O’Donnell POW facility.
In 2011, an American small business, Peregrine Development International, operating at Clark in conjunction with their Kuwaiti sponsored Global Gateway Logistics City Project, collaborated with the VFW Post 2485 to donate and construct a new perimeter fence and gate to replace the old wrought iron fence that had been half stolen by vandals with the remaining half badly rusted. While these voluntary efforts are commendable, they are insufficient and no substitute to America fulfilling its responsibility to maintain these hallowed grounds.
A Not For Profit organization, the Clark Veterans Restoration Association, was created to promote the rich history, to educate the public and advocate for the US Government to reassume its rightful and obligatory responsibility to administer the cemetery.
Additional information on the cemetery may be found at the VFW cemetery pageand Clark Veterans Cemetery Restoration Association (CVCRA) page.
Expansion
As the U.S. became more deeply involved in the war in Southeast Asia, Clark's role as a supporting base became more important and more people were assigned than could be housed in existing permanent quarters. Even new dormitories proved insufficient to meet the influx and so "temporary" housing once again came to Clark.
Prior to the construction of this facility in 1966, transient officers were billeted in quonset huts in the library area and Bachelor Officers Quarters were located in the Hill area. Chambers Hall, which was named for Captain Samuel "Bud" P. Chambers III, who was killed in action while making an approach to Tan Son Nhut, Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
, on June 29, 1965, is located on Bong Highway, just to the west of the Base Library and to the north of the Parade Ground. It contains 30 apartments for bachelor officers and 294 rooms for transients. As large as this facility is, during Thirteenth Air Force operations, such as its periodic Cope Thunder
Red Flag - Alaska
RED FLAG-Alaska is a realistic, 10-day air combat United States Air Force training exercise held up to four times a year. It is held at Eielson Air Force Base and Elmendorf Air Force Base in the State of Alaska...
training exercises, many transients have to be billeted in contracted hotels off-base.
The nerve center for Clark's flying operations was the Base Operations Building. This was opened in 1968 and replaced an earlier structure located in the same area.
Meanwhile, the 3d Tactical Fighter Wing (which had previously been at Bien Hoa Air Base
Bien Hoa Air Base
Bien Hoa Air Base is a Vietnam People's Air Force military airfield located in South-Central southern Vietnam about 20 miles from Saigon near the city of Bien Hoa within Dong Nai Province....
, Vietnam) moved to Clark Air Base on September 16, 1974 and became the base's host unit, replacing the 405th Tactical Fighter Wing. The 3d Tactical Fighter Wing had inherited the lineage and honors of the 3d Bomb Group, formed in July 1919, when that unit was inactivated. One of its squadrons, the 3d Tactical Fighter Squadron, was the first to be assigned to Clark during the interwar years as the 3d Aero Squadron and later the 3d Pursuit Squadron (Interceptor). The 3d Pursuit participated in the vain attempt to defend against the Japanese air attacks of December 8, 1941, accounting for almost all of the enemy aircraft downed by American fighter planes during that engagement.
Confrontation
Following several late-night violent attacks against American personnel by Filipino citizens during the late summer of 1968, the Base Commander, Colonel Ernest P. Pate established a curfew. The city government of Angeles City retaliated by declaring the entire city off-limits to U.S. personnel, and the situation deteriorated from there. The events culminated in a series of demonstrations against the base by Filipino nationals, with the major outburst occurring on October 4, 1968. Fortunately, this confrontation marked the high-tide of feelings on both sides and relations quickly returned to normal.Operation Homecoming
Shortly after his election as U.S. President in 1968, Richard M. Nixon began the long process of negotiating an end to the conflict in Southeast Asia. At the same time, the number of American forces in SEA was gradually reduced in favor of what came to be known as "Vietnamization" of that conflict. Under this policy, the U.S. continued to provide diplomatic, financial, and logistical support to Southeast Asian non-communist governments, but to lessen correspondingly the active roles of its own armed forces in those nations. One of the most pressing U.S. demands was for a full North VietnamNorth Vietnam
The Democratic Republic of Vietnam , was a communist state that ruled the northern half of Vietnam from 1954 until 1976 following the Geneva Conference and laid claim to all of Vietnam from 1945 to 1954 during the First Indochina War, during which they controlled pockets of territory throughout...
ese release of American POWs and an accurate accounting of U.S. servicemen missing or killed in action. Late in 1972, a basic North Vietnamese/American agreement was reached and planning for the repatriation of U.S. POWs initiated. As the major staging base for the American involvement in SEA, it was only natural that U.S. officials designated Clark Air Base as the initial point to which the POWs could return from Hanoi
Hanoi
Hanoi , is the capital of Vietnam and the country's second largest city. Its population in 2009 was estimated at 2.6 million for urban districts, 6.5 million for the metropolitan jurisdiction. From 1010 until 1802, it was the most important political centre of Vietnam...
.
The first group of returnees from Vietnam arrived at Clark at approximately 1615 hours, February 12, 1973. On hand to greet them at planeside were Admiral
Admiral
Admiral is the rank, or part of the name of the ranks, of the highest naval officers. It is usually considered a full admiral and above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet . It is usually abbreviated to "Adm" or "ADM"...
Noel Gayler
Noel Gayler
Noel Arthur Meredyth Gayler was an Admiral in the United States Navy, who served as the sixth Director of the National Security Agency from 1969 to 1972, and ninth Commander of Pacific Command from 1972 to 1976. Gayler was awarded three Navy Cross medals as a World War II flying ace and is credited...
, Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Command; Lieutenant General
Lieutenant General
Lieutenant General is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages where the title of Lieutenant General was held by the second in command on the battlefield, who was normally subordinate to a Captain General....
William G. Moore, Thirteenth Air Force Commander; and Air Force Senior Master Sergeant
Senior Master Sergeant
Senior Master Sergeant is the eighth enlisted rank in the U.S. Air Force, just above Master Sergeant and below Chief Master Sergeant and is a senior non-commissioned officer ....
Homer E. Henderson, Joint Information Bureau Assistant Non-commissioned Officer-in-Charge.
On April 6, 1975, the Clark Air Base Peace Garden was dedicated to the memory of those who died or were declared "missing in action
Missing in action
Missing in action is a casualty Category assigned under the Status of Missing to armed services personnel who are reported missing during active service. They may have been killed, wounded, become a prisoner of war, or deserted. If deceased, neither their remains nor grave can be positively...
" in Southeast Asia.
Operation Babylift/New Life
Laos
Laos Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west...
, and Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
began to score a stunning series of victories. American response was speedy and typical: a massive evacuation of Vietnamese orphan children that came to be known as Operation Babylift
Operation Babylift
Operation Babylift was the name given to the mass evacuation of children from South Vietnam to the United States and other countries at the end of the Vietnam War , from April 3–26, 1975...
. This humanitarian effort suffered a major setback on April 4, 1975, when the initial C-5A
C-5 Galaxy
The Lockheed C-5 Galaxy is a large military transport aircraft built by Lockheed. It provides the United States Air Force with a heavy intercontinental-range strategic airlift capability, one that can carry outsize and oversize cargos, including all air-certifiable cargo. The Galaxy has many...
Galaxy carrying evacuees crashed shortly after taking off from Saigon's Tan Son Nhut Air Base
Tan Son Nhut Air Base
Tan Son Nhut Air Base was a Republic of Vietnam Air Force facility. It is located near the city of Saigon in southern Vietnam. The United States used it as a major base during the Vietnam War , stationing Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marine units there...
, killing 98 children, 46 escorts, and 11 USAF crewmembers. "Babylift" continued despite this incident, however, and as the Communist forces continued their string of successes, it expanded to cover the evacuation of adult refugees from Saigon, Phnom Penh
Phnom Penh
Phnom Penh is the capital and largest city of Cambodia. Located on the banks of the Mekong River, Phnom Penh has been the national capital since the French colonized Cambodia, and has grown to become the nation's center of economic and industrial activities, as well as the center of security,...
, and Vientiane
Vientiane
-Geography:Vientiane is situated on a bend of the Mekong river, which forms the border with Thailand at this point.-Climate:Vientiane features a tropical wet and dry climate with a distinct monsoon season and a dry season. Vientiane’s dry season spans from November through March. April marks the...
, as well. By this time, the operation's nickname had changed to "New Life", from April 21 to 28 1975, more than 2,000 people were housed in a massive tent city, adjacent to the "Bamboo Bowl" stadium. The first planeload of Vietnamese orphans arrived at Clark on April 5, 1975.
Clark Becomes a Philippine Base
One of the most significant developments in Philippine-American relations was the promulgation of the revised 1979 MBA that, for the first time on over 75 years, established Philippine sovereignty over former U.S. Bases in the country. To facilitate its management of base areas outside of those specifically designated as part of the U.S. facility and to supervise perimeter and gate security, the AFP established Clark Air Base Command (CABCOM) on February 16, 1979, and assigned Brigadier General Oscar M. Alejandro as its first Deputy Commander. (Under Philippine regulations, the AFP Chief of Staff served as CABCOM Commander.) By the end of 1983, CABCOM had over 700 personnel assigned, serving in administrative and security posts.
Live Television Broadcasts from the Mainland
The last day of 1983 saw the beginning of a new era at Clark Air Base with the transmission of live television broadcasts from the United States through the Satellite Earth Terminal. With the "SATNET", Far East NetworkFar East Network
The Far East Network was a network of American military radio and television stations, primarily serving U.S Forces in Japan, Okinawa, the Philippines, and U.S...
-Philippines was able to bring timely information, news and entertainment programs to the Clark area.
The February 1986 Revolution
On February 24, Philippine Air ForcePhilippine Air Force
The Philippine Air Force is the air force of the Republic of the Philippines, and one of the three main services of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Its official name in Filipino is Hukbong Himpapawid ng Pilipinas....
aircraft from the rebel 15th Strike Wing requested permission to land. Their original intent had been to land, refuel and rearm, but the U.S. policy of strict neutrality forbade this. Instead, Washington allowed any aircraft declaring an "emergency" to land for "humanitarian" reasons. By the time the revolution ended, Clark had become "safe haven" for a large segment of the PAF: six T-28s
T-28 Trojan
The North American Aviation T-28 Trojan is a piston-engined military trainer aircraft used by the United States Air Force and United States Navy beginning in the 1950s...
, five T-33s
T-33 Shooting Star
The Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star is an American-built jet trainer aircraft. It was produced by Lockheed and made its first flight in 1948, piloted by Tony LeVier. The T-33 was developed from the Lockheed P-80/F-80 starting as TP-80C/TF-80C in development, then designated T-33A. It was used by the...
, seven F-8s
F-8 Crusader
The Vought F-8 Crusader was a single-engine, supersonic, carrier-based air superiority jet aircraft built by Vought for the United States Navy and the U.S. Marine Corps, replacing the Vought F7U Cutlass...
, two F-47s
P-47 Thunderbolt
Republic Aviation's P-47 Thunderbolt, also known as the "Jug", was the largest, heaviest, and most expensive fighter aircraft in history to be powered by a single reciprocating engine. It was heavily armed with eight .50-caliber machine guns, four per wing. When fully loaded, the P-47 weighed up to...
, two C-130s
C-130 Hercules
The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is a four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed and built originally by Lockheed, now Lockheed Martin. Capable of using unprepared runways for takeoffs and landings, the C-130 was originally designed as a troop, medical evacuation, and cargo transport...
, one MD-500, and two Twin Otters. The presence of these aircraft caused another problem: suppose loyalist forces realized they were present and tried to destroy them from the air or in a ground attack? Fortunately, no such threat materialized but at any rate, USAF forces at Kadena Air Base
Kadena Air Base
, is a United States Air Force base in the towns of Kadena and Chatan and the city of Okinawa, in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. Kadena Air Base is the hub of U.S. airpower in the Pacific, and home to the USAF's 18th Wing and a variety of associate units.-Units:The 18th Wing is the host unit at Kadena...
and United States Navy aircraft were ready to support Clark if it became necessary.
Fabian Ver
Fabian C. Ver was a General and Chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines under President Ferdinand Marcos...
and Eduardo Cojuangco. By February 25, 1986, most of the AFP had switched to the rebel side and loyalist forces from northern Luzon, under Brigadier General Tomas Dumpit, who supposedly were on their way to attack Enrile and Ramos never materialized. President Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
clearly had thrown his support to Aquino and the best that could be hoped for was to beat a safe retreat. Both U.S. Ambassador Steven Bosworth and Joint U.S. Military Advisory Group Brigadier General Theodore Allen were in communication with Malacañang and Clark, as well as Washington. Later in the afternoon of the 25th, the decision was made to evacuate Marcos from the palace. Helicopters from Clark's 31st Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron flew to Manila, picked up the Presidential party, and returned to the base, arriving just after 9 p.m.
The ex-President, his wife and immediate family, along with General Ver, occupied 13AF Distinguished Visitor quarters, while the rest of the entourage had to be billeted in Chambers Hall. Along with the Marcos party, Clark AB personnel packaged up and sent out a considerable amount of "personal effects", the same ones that later were seized by U.S. Customs officials in Hawaii and which became the subject of so much media controversy.
After spending the night on-base, the group, now swelled by several family members of sides and associates who had arrived during the night, boarded a C-9A Nightingale and a C-141 Starlifter
C-141 Starlifter
The Lockheed C-141 Starlifter was a military strategic airlifter in service with the Air Mobility Command of the United States Air Force...
and flew to Guam
Guam
Guam is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is one of five U.S. territories with an established civilian government. Guam is listed as one of 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories by the Special Committee on Decolonization of the United...
and then Hawaii, where President Marcos went into exile.
New Construction
For many years, the base had languished in the backwaters of PACAF's military construction program, but that ended in the early 1980s, and since that time, the base witnessed the opening of several new facilities.One of the first of these new facilities, a modern Youth Center, first opened its doors on March 29, 1984. The old Youth Center, which had been housed in the original Kelly Theater, became a skating rink
Ice rink
An ice rink is a frozen body of water and/or hardened chemicals where people can skate or play winter sports. Besides recreational ice skating, some of its uses include ice hockey, figure skating and curling as well as exhibitions, contests and ice shows...
. This new Youth Center building houses a number of features designed to appeal to the younger members of Clark's community: an airconditioned basketball court
Basketball court
In basketball, the basketball court is the playing surface, consisting of a rectangular floor with tiles at either end. In professional or organized basketball, especially when played indoors, it is usually made out of a wood, often maple, and highly polished...
, large screen television, disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
, pool
Billiards
Cue sports , also known as billiard sports, are a wide variety of games of skill generally played with a cue stick which is used to strike billiard balls, moving them around a cloth-covered billiards table bounded by rubber .Historically, the umbrella term was billiards...
and ping-pong tables, video games, and a snack bar.
One of the most long-awaited and most beautiful examples of Clark's new construction boom was the Golf Club House, which was officially opened in August 1985. This modern building offersed the facilities one would expect to find in a club house, as well as a pro shop, a restaurant, and a beautiful panoramic view of the course.
The site of this new building was once part of the old Fort Stotsenburg
Fort Stotsenburg
Fort Stotsenburg, during the World War II era, was the location of the Philippine Department's 26th Cavalry Regiment, 86th Field Artillery Regiment, and 88th Field Artillery Regiment; along with the Philippine Division's 23rd and 24th Field Artillery Regiments...
cemetery, and during the digging for its foundation, several old iron crosses were uncovered. Time and the elements combined to reduce most of these to rust, but one was still in remarkably good condition and has been preserved for display in the Clark Historical Center.
Closure
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
, operations at the base were scaled back with many of the men and equipment moving to other bases, including returning to the U.S. In 1990, the last combat aircraft, a squadron of F-4 fighter-bombers, were transferred to Alaska. Then on June 10, 1991, two days before Mount Pinatubo
Mount Pinatubo
Mount Pinatubo is an active stratovolcano located on the island of Luzon, near the tripoint of the Philippine provinces of Zambales, Tarlac, and Pampanga. It is located in the Tri-Cabusilan Mountain range separating the west coast of Luzon from the central plains, and is west of the dormant and...
began the summer-long series of eruptions which destroyed the upper 1000 feet of its peak, Clark Air Base was completely evacuated of all but security personnel on June 10, 1991, never to return.
In July 1991, the U.S. and Philippine government agreed to a new treaty regarding the lease of the Subic Bay Naval Base, Clark, and several other U.S. military installations in the Philippines. Under the agreement, the U.S. was to clean up Clark and turn the base over to the Philippine government in 1992 while leasing Subic Bay for another 10 years. The Philippine Senate rejected this extension of the Military Bases Agreement in September 1991. On November 26, 1991, the U.S. government formally turned Clark over to the Philippine government, which transformed the airfield into the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport
Diosdado Macapagal International Airport
Diosdado Macapagal International Airport , also called Clark International Airport , is the main airport serving the immediate vicinity of the Clark Freeport Zone and the general area of Angeles City in the Philippines...
.