- Clark Air Base
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▪ military base, Philippinesformerly Clark Fieldformer U.S. military air base, central Luzon, Philippines. It covered an area of about 12 square miles (30 square km) and was located 48 miles (77 km) north of Manila near the foothills of the Cabusilan Mountains. It was first established as a U.S. military camp for the 5th Cavalry after the Spanish-American War (1898). The base was named for Major Harold M. Clark, a pre-World War I pilot, in 1918. Clark Field was the principal target of raids by Taiwan-based Japanese bombers on December 8, 1941, that destroyed more than half of the U.S. Army's aircraft in East Asia. After the Japanese occupied the Philippines (1941–42), the airfield became a major Japanese base of operations during World War II. The first Japanese kamikaze (suicide) flight was made from Clark in 1944 as U.S. forces began the process of recapturing the Philippines. In the postwar era, Clark Air Base became the largest U.S. military air base outside the United States and a vital connecting link with U.S. forces in South Korea and, later, South Vietnam. During the Vietnam War, Clark Air Base served as a strategic supply base and fighter-squadron installation.Beginning in the 1970s the United States and the Philippines held negotiations on the conditions for continued U.S. use of Clark Air Base. The eruption in 1991 of Mount Pinatubo covered the base with volcanic ash, destroying many buildings. At this point, the negotiations over Clark Air Base became moot, and the U.S. government withdrew, turning over the base to the Philippine government on November 26, 1991. The Philippine government converted the air base and the surrounding area into a free port and an economic zone, known as the Clark Special Economic Zone, whose industrial and transportation facilities 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.
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Universalium. 2010.
