CLARK AIR BASE

formerly Clark Field, former U.S. military air base, northwestern Luzon, Philippines. It covered an area of about 12 square miles (30 square km). Located 48 miles (77 km) northwest of Manila near the foothills of the Cabusilan Mountains, it was 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 (194142), 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. 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 Nov. 26, 1991.