Fort Stotsenburg and Clark Field become Clark Air Force Base
Fort Stotsenburg | Photo from Wikipedia
Fort Stotsenburg was created in 1902 outside of Angeles City in Pampanga Province. The location of the fort was approximately 50 miles north of Manila. The American president, Theodore Roosevelt, had signed an executive order in 1902 declaring the military reservation. The reservation encompassed an enormous 151,000 acres.
The fort was named after Colonel John Stotsenburg who was killed in April 1899 during intense action in the Philippine-American War. The colonel was a member of the First Nebraska Volunteers. Colonel Stotsenburg was buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia on June 1, 1899. President William McKinley attended his funeral.
The Americans picked this site in Central Luzon because there was an abundance of sweet grass to feed their horses. The previous locations in Central Luzon had inedible saw grass.
Since the fort was large and had relatively flat ground, it gained a reputation for field artillery training.
Approximately one half of the field artillery soldiers were Philippine Scouts. The fort also became the home of the American cavalry in the Philippines. The highly respected and well known 26th Cavalry was comprised of enlisted Philippine Scouts and mainly American officers. The 26th also had a reputation of being talented polo players. There were also an ordnance company and a quartermaster platoon at the fort.
Over the years, an assignment at Fort Stotsenburg was considered good duty. There were many activities. There was poker, ping pong, baseball, football, horseback riding and a golf course. The Club House had a theater, swimming pool and bowling alley. There was a medical facility with American nurses. It was called US Army Station Hospital Fort Stotsenburg.
Like Fort William McKinley, the parade ground was the focal point of Fort Stotsenburg. Routinely, the field artillery, cavalry and other soldiers would muster on the parade ground in formation for inspection, close-order drills and marching. The post commander’s headquarters and officer’s housing was built around the parade ground. Fort Stotsenburg had two iconic gate posts at the entrance to the site.
After the implementation of the National Defense Act of 1935, Fort Stotsenburg was tasked to train soldiers for the Philippine Commonwealth Army in field artillery. A camp was established within the large boundaries of Fort Stotsenburg on March 10, 1937.
The site was named Camp Dau. The camp gained a reputation as a premier training facility for field artillery. American soldiers and Philippine Scouts conducted the training. The army constructed seven large barracks which were arranged in a horseshoe design. President Manual Quezon of the Philippine Commonwealth government renamed the site to Camp Del Pilar. General Gregorio Del Pilar was a Filipino general during the Philippine-American War.
Due to minimal US Congress appropriations during the 1920s and 1930s, Fort Stotsenburg, like other facilities in the Philippines and the United States, declined in preparedness and readiness. Members of the Philippine Division were positioned throughout the Philippines instead of being a concentrated force. Fort Stotsenburg was in dire need of modern tanks and field artillery.
Unlike Fort William McKinley, Fort Stotsenburg had an enormous piece of land to build and accommodate a significant airfield within the confines of the military reservation. The construction of Clark Field was commenced during 1917 to 1919. It began as a basic airstrip. Clark Field had the ideal soil for runways. The volcanic soil from previous eruptions of Mt. Pinatubo drained especially well and was perfect for an airfield. By fall of 1941, Clark Field had been significantly upgraded by the Army Corp of Engineers and the 809 Engineer Aviation Battalion.
Clark Field was named after Major Harold Clark. The major was a member of the United States Signal Corp. He had completed several early aviation assignments including aerial mapping. Unfortunately, Major Clark died in a plane accident by the Miraflores locks in the Panama Canal Zone in May 1919.
Clark Field | Photo from Wikipedia
From Clark’s humble beginnings in 1919, the airfield became the leading air base in the Far East. Once the US Congress and American military leaders realized that Imperial Japan’s aggression in Asia and Southeast Asia was inexorable, Clark Field received from the War Department a disproportionate amount of modern P-40 fighter planes and B-17 bombers.
The new planes started arriving at Clark Field in September and October 1941. Due to the size and weight of the B-17 bombers, only Clark Field in Luzon and Del Monte Field in Mindanao could support the B-17s during rainy season.
On Dec. 8, 1941, Japanese bombers followed by Zero fighters attacked Clark Field. The senior American officers in the Philippines had received news a few hours earlier of an attack by Japan at Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands.
Most of the modern American P-40 fighter and B-17 bombers were unfortunately lined up wing tip to wing tip on the ground. The Japanese pilots took advantage of the easy targets at Clark Field. Only one B-17 was not hit during the initial Japanese raid on Dec. 8, 1941, at Clark Field.
There was one heroic action by a Clark Field pilot on Dec. 10, 1941. B-17 pilot, Captain Colin P. Kelley Jr., was bombing Japanese forces around the Aparri area in Northern Luzon. His plane was shot down during intense fighting. His B-17 was the first bomber from Clark Field to be shot down in combat instead of being defenseless on the ground.
After only two weeks of fighting the Japanese Imperial Army in December 1941, the American and Filipino troops were following the original War Plan Orange and retreating to Bataan. Since most of the airplanes at Clark Field were destroyed, the pilots and aviation support personnel of the US Army Air Corp at Clark Field were heading to Bataan. The Army Air Corp at Clark Field was now infantry soldiers. They were joining the retreat with the cavalry and field artillery at Fort Stotsenburg to construct defensive lines in Bataan.
Following World War II in 1945 and Philippine Independence in 1946, Clark Field and Fort Stotsenburg remained as American bases. In 1949, following the establishment of the United States Air Force as a separate branch of the US military, the two bases were merged into one. The new base was named Clark Air Force Base.
The eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991 resulted in an abrupt evacuation of Clark Air Force Base by US military personnel and their dependents. At the same time, the Philippine Senate was debating the merits of extending the terms of the lease of Clark to the United States. The Philippine Senate declined to extend the lease. The Mt. Pinatubo disaster only accelerated the American departure from Clark Air Force Base.
Today, Clark Field, Fort Stotsenburg and Clark Air Force Base comprise the Clark Freeport and Special Economic Zone. This very large facility is very prosperous with international businesses, an international airport with a new terminal, casinos, fancy hotels, shopping and entertainment.
There is a museum located in the former headquarters building adjacent to the parade ground at Fort Stotsenburg. Sixty years ago, the missing two iconic gate posts at the entrance to Fort Stotsenburg were located buried in Clark Field. Evidently, the Japanese had used the posts to repair a runway during the war. The posts are now in their rightful location.
Dennis Edward Flake is the author of three books on Philippine-American history. He is a Public Historian and a park ranger in interpretation for the National Park Service at the Eisenhower National Historic Site in Gettysburg, PA. He can be contacted at: flakedennis@gmail.com
