Editing Clark Air Base (section)

==History==
[[File:Harold Melville Clark.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Maj. [[Harold M. Clark]], the namesake of Clark Air Base]]
{{main|History of Clark Air Base}}

Clark Air Base was originally established as [[Fort Stotsenburg]] in [[Sapang Bato]], [[Angeles City|Angeles, Pampanga]] in 1903 under control of the [[U.S. Army]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Clark Air Base History |url=http://clarkab.org/history/ |access-date=2024-01-20 |website=clarkab.org}}</ref> 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 (Panama)|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 [[attack on Clark Field|air raid nine hours after the Pearl Harbor attack]].

The base was attacked by [[Imperial Japanese Army|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]].<ref name="Morison1956">{{cite book | chapter = Leyte, June 1944 – January 1945 |title=[[History of United States Naval Operations in World War II]] |volume=XII |last=Morison | first =Samuel E. |year=1956 |publisher=Little & Brown |location=Boston }}</ref><ref name="Woodward1947">{{cite book |title=The Battle for Leyte Gulf |last=Woodward |first=C. Vann |year=1947 |publisher=Macmillan |location=New York }}</ref>

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 [[Philippines Campaign (1944–45)|three months of fierce fighting]] to liberate the Philippines.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Clark Air Base History |url=http://clarkab.org/history/ |access-date=2024-01-20 |website=clarkab.org}}</ref> It was immediately returned to [[U.S. Army Air Forces]] control.

Clark grew into a major American air base during the [[Cold War]], as a launching pad for the [[Korean War]]<ref>[https://www.deseret.com/1991/8/4/18934279/92-closure-of-clark-air-base-will-mark-end-of-an-era-rich-in-drama-and-history 92 CLOSURE OF CLARK AIR BASE WILL MARK END OF AN ERA RICH IN DRAMA AND HISTORY] By Deseret News August 4, 1991.</ref> and serving as an important logistics hub during the [[Vietnam War]]. 

Clark and the other [[United States bases in the Philippines]] became the focus of significant controversy in the Philippines during the [[Dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos]], becoming one of the most common points of contention raised during numerous major protests.<ref name="GazetteHistoryProtest">{{Cite web |url=https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/edsa/the-ph-protest-appendix/ |title=A History of the Philippine Political Protest |website=Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines |language=en-US |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170705180022/http://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/edsa/the-ph-protest-appendix/ |archive-date=July 5, 2017 |url-status=dead |access-date=2018-12-10 |df=mdy-all }}</ref> Meanwhile, Marcos was able to use ongoing negotiations for the renewal of the US bases treaty as a way of limiting US government criticism and intervention against human rights abuses, attacks on press freedom, and the shuttering of democratic institutions in the Philippines.<ref name="AmBoy1999">{{Cite book |last=Hamilton-Paterson |first=James |title=America's boy: a century of colonialism in the Philippines |date=1999 |publisher=H. Holt |isbn=978-0-8050-6118-5 |edition=1st American |location=New York}}</ref><ref name="Kessler1986">{{cite journal|last=Kessler|first=Richard J.|date=1986|title=Marcos and the Americans|journal=Foreign Policy|issue=63|pages=40–57|doi=10.2307/1148755|issn=0015-7228|jstor=1148755}}</ref> 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.<ref name="AmBoy1999"/>

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.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/18/world/us-and-manila-agree-on-terms-for-10-year-lease-of-subic-bay.html|title=U.S. and Manila Agree on Terms For 10-Year Lease of Subic Bay|first=Philip|last=Shenon|date=July 18, 1991|newspaper=New York Times}}</ref>

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]] (CIA) and parts of it are still owned and operated by the Philippine Air Force, retaining the same name, Clark Air Base.

In June 2012, the Philippine government, under pressure from Chinese claims to their seas, agreed to the return of American military forces to Clark.<ref>{{cite news|last=Munoz|first=Carlo|title=The Philippines re-opens military bases to US forces|url=https://thehill.com/policy/defense/116306-the-philippines-re-opens-military-bases-to-us-forces/|access-date=July 3, 2013|newspaper=The Hill|date=July 6, 2012}}</ref>

===Military units===
{{Further|List of military units of Clark Air Base}}
During much of the Cold War, Clark Air Base's activity largely revolved around the [[405th Fighter Wing]], later renumbered as the [[3rd Tactical Fighter Wing]] in September 1974 and its fleet of [[F-4 Phantom II]] fighter jets. It also hosted an interceptor squadron and a flight school, all of which flew a variety of other combat aircraft. Transient aircraft of many types, especially cargo jets, were common.

Fighter planes regularly visited to participate in aerial warfare exercises at [[Crow Valley]] about {{convert|30|mi}} to the northwest. In November 1973, headquarters for the [[374th Tactical Airlift Wing]] was transferred from [[Ching Chuan Kang Air Base]], Taiwan, to Clark Air Base. With this move came two squadrons of [[Lockheed C-130 Hercules|C-130E]] transport aircraft, the [[21st Tactical Airlift Squadron]] and the [[776th Tactical Airlift Squadron]].

Clark was served regularly by cargo and passenger flights to and from [[Andersen AFB]], Guam; [[Kadena AB]], Japan; [[Diego Garcia]]; Jakarta, Indonesia; [[Don Muang Royal Thai Air Force Base|Bangkok]] and [[Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base|Ubon]] Thailand; and [[Saigon]], South Vietnam (until 1975). During the 1970s, passengers arrived via [[Trans International Airlines|Trans International]] [[Douglas DC-8]] and Braniff International DC-8s (the Pickle and the Banana) flights from [[Travis AFB]], California (via Honolulu and Guam).

By 1980, the base had grown to such an extent that weekly [[Flying Tiger Line|Flying Tigers]] [[Boeing 747]] service to St. Louis (via Kadena AB Japan; Anchorage; and Los Angeles) had begun. The 747 service was taken over by [[Tower Air]] sometime in the late 1980s and was augmented with a weekly [[Hawaiian Airlines]] [[Lockheed L-1011|L-1011]] or [[Douglas DC-8]] to Guam-Honolulu-Los Angeles.

===Shootings===
On October 29, 1987, unidentified gunmen shot and killed three airmen.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-10-29-mn-17388-story.html|title=3 Americans Shot to Death Near U.S. Philippine Base|date=October 29, 1987|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]}}</ref>

On May 14, 1990, suspected [[New People's Army]] (NPA) communist rebels shot and killed two airmen.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/gdpr-consent/|title=The Washington Post|website=Washingtonpost.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-05-14-mn-127-story.html | title=2 U.S. Airmen Killed at Base in Philippines : Military: The shootings, believed to be the work of Communist rebels, come on the eve of talks on the future of American bases. | date=May 14, 1990| first=Bob | last=Drogin | newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]| access-date=November 9, 2018 }}</ref>