The new Clark—from a military airfield to a commercial airport

 

CLARK AIR BASE built in 1903, was a US military base in Central Luzon. It was known as Fort Stotsenburg when it  was first established as a US military camp for the 5th Cavalry after the Spanish-American War ( 1898). After the Second World War, it was renamed Clark Air Field after Major Harold M. Clark, a World War 1 pilot who was born in Minnesota and raised in Manila. The area covered an area of 12 square miles (30 square km). 

The Clark family had a strong military tradition dating back to the Revolutionary War (late 1770s). His father fought Spanish forces in the Philippines while assigned to Company E, 13th Minnesota volunteer infantry during the Spanish-American War of 1898. The end of the Spanish-American War brought a period of growth and interest in the Philippines. In 1904, the Clarks moved to Manila, where they enjoyed considerable wealth and prestige due to the family's business ventures. After graduating from the American High School in Manila in 1910, Harold followed his family's footsteps and returned to the U.S. for military training. He was commissioned a second lieutenant of Cavalry in 1913. In 1916, he transferred to the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps.  (The Signal Corps was the first to act on a strategic mission for aviation services of the United States Armed Forces, funding the research of the Wright Brothers in 1903). In 1917, Clark was rated a “junior military aviator” and commanded an air service station in Hawaii. He completed the first inter-island flight ever made in the Hawaiian islands. He died in 1919, at only 29 years of age in a seaplane crash in the Miraflores Locks, Panama Canal Zone and is interred at Arlington National Cemetery. 

At the outset of the Pacific phase of World War II, Clark Air Base was the principal target of raids by the Taiwan-based Japanese bombers that destroyed more than half of the US Army's aircraft in East Asia. When the Japanese occupied the Philippines  (1941-42), the airfield became a major Japanese base of operations during the war. The first kamikaze (suicide) flight was launched  from Clark in 1944 as U.S. forces began the process of recapturing the Philippines. In the post Word War II era, Clark Air Base became the largest US   military air base outside the United States and a vital connecting link with US  forces in South Korea and later, Southeast Asia. During the Vietnam War (1955-1975), Clark Air Base served as a strategic supply base as well as a fighter squadron installation. Wounded soldiers in Vietnam were flown to Clark for treatment before they were transported back to the United States. According to Dr. Don Rubio, who spent his  post graduate medical training at the old USAF Hospital in Clark, the wounded  were treated there for gun shots, grenade shrapnel wounds, closed head injuries, perforated ear drums, and post-traumatic stress disorder. 

In the 1970s, the United States and the Philippines held negotiations on the conditions for continued US  use of Clark Air Base. Those negotiations stalled however when the nearby volcano Mount Pinatubo erupted in June of 1991 covering the base with volcanic ash that  destroyed many of its buildings. 

Five days before Pinatubo's cataclysmic eruptions, some 15,000 Americans had evacuated the base, so only a small band of security forces remained to watch and listen to the devastation caused by the volcano's first eruption in 500 years. More than 100 buildings collapsed in thunderous crashes. Drainage and sewer systems quickly filled with mud as flash floods of wet ash swept through the base. By mid-afternoon, total darkness engulfed Clark, while typhoon “Yun-ya” swirled airborne goo like a mixer swirling pancake batter.

Air Force civil engineers quickly did a triage of facilities and utilities. Their estimates to resume operations on the base exceeded US$500 million.  Even if the price had been acceptable,  the situation on the ground was not. Pinatubo continued to erupt daily. On-scene US Geological Survey scientists thought the volcano might cook for years, its ash plumes constituting an ever-present threat to aviation.

At that point, the negotiations over Clark Air Base became moot, and the Defense Department and Air Force acted promptly and announced on July 17, 1991, that the United States was putting an end to 93 years of continuous US military presence in the Philippines. 

The US government officially withdrew, turning over the base to the Philippine government on Nov. 26, 1991. Though the Americans considered Clark useless as a base, others considered it an opportunity. Some Filipinos dreamed that the revival of the abandoned facilities would inject new life into the local economy. By 1995, then President Fidel V. Ramos had pushed through the Philippine government legislation that declared the Clark site to be a special economic zone. Essentially, the new laws made the zone duty-free and tax-free. 

Immediately, investment capital from Asia started to flow toward the former base, and today the effect is nothing short of remarkable. 

The industrial and transportation facilities developed there attracted foreign trade and investment, thereby stimulating the economic growth of Central Luzon. The base's runways and other facilities were converted for use as an international airport. 

Clark International Airport (CRK) was recognized as a laureate of Prix Versailles' 2023 list of the World's Most Beautiful Airports. Additionally, on March 1, 2024, CRK won the Routes Asia Marketing Award under the 5 million Passenger airport category after having  handled nearly 2 million passengers in 2023, or a 160% increase. Located 80 kilometers northwest of Manila, CRK is easily accessible by way of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX). It serves a total of 19 airlines connecting the Luzon region to 19 domestic and 14 international destinations. Due to its smaller size and more relaxed atmosphere,  Clark is a popular alternative to NAIA (Manila International), notorious for its congestion and inefficiency.  Lines at Clark tend to be shorter and the airport is generally less crowded, making for a more pleasant travel experience. 

Although Major Harold Clark had been dead for 125 years, his name lives on. That the Philippines retained Clark's name for the airport  is a testament to the robust and enduring relationship that the Philippines and the United States share. This alliance which is the U.S.' oldest in the Indo Pacific  is one that is  based on shared values, national interests, and dense people-to-people connections. Having stood together in defense of their common interests,  the military relationship between the two countries is often at the forefront of policy conversations. 

Noralyn Onto Dudt is very grateful to a good family friend, Arthur “Bud” Booth for having inspired her to write about Clark Air Field. Mr. Booth was on a two-week assignment there in the mid-1960s.