Clark Air Base
Clark Air Base is a Philippine Air Force base in Luzon, located west of Angeles City, and about northwest of Metro Manila. It was previously operated by the U.S. Air Force and, before that, the U.S. Army, from 1903 to 1991. The base covered with a military reservation extending north that covered another.
The base was a stronghold of combined Philippine and American forces during the final months of World War II, and a backbone of logistical support during the Vietnam War until 1975. Following the departure of American forces in 1991 due to the eruption of Mount Pinatubo and rejection by the Philippine Senate for renewing the presence of U.S. military bases in the Philippines, the base became the site of Clark International Airport, as well as the Clark Freeport Zone and the Air Force City of the Philippine Air Force.
In 2014, the United States and the Philippines signed the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, which allows the United States to rotate troops into the Philippines for extended stays and allows the United States to build and operate facilities on Philippine bases for both American and Philippine forces. While it did not allow the U.S.to establish any permanent military bases, it allows for the return of a rotational US troop presence in the former US bases, including Clark.
History
Establishment and prewar era
Clark Air Base was originally established as Fort Stotsenburg in Sapang Bato, Angeles, Pampanga in 1903 under control of the U.S. Army. A portion of Fort Stotsenburg was officially set aside for the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps and named Clark Field in September 1919 after Harold M. Clark, who died in a seaplane crash in the Miraflores Locks, Panama Canal Zone on May 2, 1919. Clark later served as a landing field for U.S. Army Air Corps medium bombers and accommodated half of the heavy bombers stationed in the Philippines during the 1930s. It was very large for an air field of its day, and in the late summer and fall of 1941, many aircraft were sent to Clark in anticipation of a war with Imperial Japan. However, most of them were destroyed on the ground during an air raid nine hours after the Pearl Harbor attack.World War II era
The base was attacked by Japanese forces on December 8, 1941 destroying dozens of aircraft and the base was evacuated on December 24. American forces on Bataan and Corregidor fell on April 9, 1942 leading a few days later to the brutal Bataan Death March. Clark became a major center for Japanese air operations throughout the war. Japanese aircraft flying out of Clark participated in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest naval battle of the Second World War.During the war, Allied prisoners on the Bataan Death March passed by the main gate of Clark Air Base as they followed the railway tracks north towards Camp O'Donnell. During October through January 1945 American air raids damaged or destroyed over 1500 Japanese aircraft. On January 31, American forces regained possession of Clark Field after three months of fierce fighting to liberate the Philippines. It was immediately returned to U.S. Army Air Forces control.
Postwar era
Clark grew into a major American air base during the Cold War, as a launching pad for the Korean War and serving as an important logistics hub during the Vietnam War.The US Bases became a political issue in the Philippines during the 1960s, which saw a resurgence of Filipino nationalism, especially among students. A major flashpoint in the issue was the November 25, 1964 fatal shooting by off-duty US Airman First Class Larry D. Cole of 14 year old Rogelio Balagtas, one of several boys who were scavenging discarded shell casings from a firing range at Clark Air Base. It was further heightened by the shooting of 21 year old Filipino laborer Glicerio Amor by US Navy Gunner's Mate 3/E Michael Moomey in Subic Naval Base on June 10, 1969. These two incidents were later combined and dramatized in the 1976 Filipino film "Minsa'y Isang Gamu-gamo."
During the Marcos dictatorship
By the time Ferdinand Marcos was inaugurated as the Tenth President of the Philippines on December 30, 1965, the bases agreement between the Philippines and the US was nearly two decades old, and the continued presence of Clark and the other United States bases in the Philippines helped shape the tone of the relationship between the two countries. All five of the American presidents from 1965 to 1985 were unwilling to jeopardize the US–Marcos relationship, mainly because they felt a need to protect and retain the bases in order to project power in Asia and the Asia-Pacific. Marcos managed to hold on to power for 21 years despite Martial Law and the many human rights violations perpetuated by his administration, and the negative international press that came with it all, by manipulating the U.S. military's dependence on the bases.The presence of the bases continued to be rallying points in the First Quarter Storm protests in Manila January to March 1970, alongside the deployment of Filipino troops to the Vietnam War and the economic strain caused by the 1969 Philippine balance of payments crisis and Marcos' debt-driven spending in the leadup to the 1969 presidential campaign
1970 was also saw a major diplomatic incident at Clark Air Base in what US Presidential Assistant for National Security Affairs Henry Kissinger later called "the Williams Case." In June 1970, Angeles City Court of First Instance Ceferino Gaddi ordered the arrest of Base Commander Colonel Averill Holman and Base Chief of International Law Lt. Col. Raymond Hodges, citing in contempt for allowing the transfer of US Air Force Staff Sergeant Bernard Willams to the US in November 1969 despite the fact that he had been arraigned in the Angeles Court in August 1969 on criminal charges of abduction and attempted rape. Williams was eventually returned to the Philippines,
although the Marcos administration refused to enforce the court ordered arrests against Holman and Hodges. The incident helped the push for the renegotiation of the US-Philippines Bases Treaty in 1979, in an effort to clarify the issue of Philippine sovereignty and jurisdiction over the bases.
In 1971, unfair labor practices - including frequent strip searches, penalites for speaking in non-english languages, unexplained termination, and the nonpayment of benefits - led the civilian workers at the base to stage a three-day strke which began on March 3, followed by a half-month strike which began on July 25. The Federation of Filipino Civilian Employees Associations would organize further major strikes in 1979, 1983, and in March 1986.
Near the end of his second constitutionally allowed terms as President, Ferdinand Marcos declared Martial law in September 1972, effectively extending his hold on power for fourteen years, until he was deposed in 1986. This had minimal impact on life in or the operations of Clark Air Base, although those who lived outside the base had to comply with a curfew which was in place from 12 midnight to 4 in the morning until Martial Law was technically lifted in 1981.
1977 marked the beginning of the Presidency of Jimmy Carter in the United States, which marked a major shift in diplomatic relations where the US became critical of Marcos' human rights record. However, this criticism was tempered by the US' need for political leverage as the US-Philippines Bases Treaty was renegotiated in 1979.
In 1979, the Military Bases Agreement was substantially altered in many areas in direct response to growing Filipino popular criticism. A Philippine commander was designated at each base but the US retained operational command over US facilities located there, substantially reducing areas directly under US control. The issue of compensation was also addressed for the first time with the US agreeing to pay $500 million for a five-year period. This increased to $900 million in 1983 for the next five years.
Clark Air Base played a key part in the end of the Marcos regime in the Philippines. When the Marcoses were deposed in February 1986, they fled the Presidential Palace and were flown to Clark, and it was from there that the US government flew them into exile in Hawaii.
Later years and transfer to the Philippines
On October 29, 1987, unidentified gunmen shot and killed three airmen.On May 14, 1990, suspected New People's Army communist rebels shot and killed two airmen.
Before extensive damage from the Mount Pinatubo volcanic eruption of 1991, the Philippine government offered to renew the leases on Clark, Subic and a handful of smaller bases for $825 million annually. After the volcanic eruption, the U.S. offered about $200 million annually and only for Subic; the lease for Clark was not renewed.
In November 1991, the United States Air Force lowered the U.S. flag and transferred Clark Air Base to the Philippine government. With the United States military's withdrawal from Clark, the base was systematically looted by the local population and was left abandoned for several years. It finally became the Clark Freeport Zone, the site of Clark International Airport and parts of it are still owned and operated by the Philippine Air Force, retaining the same name, Clark Air Base.
Visiting Forces Agreements
In June 2012, the Philippine government, under pressure from Chinese claims to their seas, agreed to the return of American military forces to Clark.In April 2016, an air contingent of USAF A-10s and HH-60s was deployed from US air bases in Pyeongtaek and Okinawa to Clark. The air contingent included five A-10C Thunderbolt IIs from the 51st Fighter Wing, Osan AB, South Korea; three HH-60G Pave Hawks from the 18th Wing, Kadena AB, Japan; and approximately 200 personnel deployed from multiple Pacific Air Force units. The primary mission of the contingent appears to be to patrol disputed South China Sea islands, "to provide greater and more transparent air and maritime domain awareness to ensure safety for military and civilian activities in international waters and airspace." The air contingent builds upon previous deployments by U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon aircraft to Clark.