Clark Air Base Scrapbook

The Last Day

by Thomas C. Utts

“Clark Closed Today”
That's what one Clark sergeant wrote in a letter home after participating in the formal
turn over ceremony on November 26, 1991. An Air Force News Service reporter
wrote that some 1,000 people looked on. The sergeant who was posted
near the VIP stand, said he watched the American flag lowered
'at Clark for the last time. “It was sad. A lot of emotions
showed. People cried. It was a bit like a funeral.”

The photos below were taken on that
last day by Sergeant John Mathis. He was raised in
Omaha Nebraska, mostly he said because his father was a career
Air Force type. He joined in 1977 and was in law enforcement for his entire
20 years. He retired at Offutt as a Master Sergeant in April 1998. He's now a patrol
officer in Boise Idaho. The department has 280 sworn officers in town just under 200,000.

    Mathis was NCOIC on the
    flag detail for the closing
    ceremonies, along with
    three airman, whose names
    he doesn't remember. (Mt.
    Arayat is just barely visible
    on the right behind trees.)
    He said it was a big event
    with both US and Philippine
    Air Force members. “We
    turned the flag over to the
    US Ambassador. I know
    a lot of tears were shed by
    many who were there for
    years." Most of the United
    States Air Force people and
    then left Clark for the last

                        time on bus to Subic Bay. They flew from Cubi Point to Guam and on to Hickam, and from
                        there by chartered flight to LA. “From there last 150 us went out separate ways.

Mathis' father saved
this story and photo
that was published in the
Omaha World Herald
shortly after the event.

Mathis took this photo of the
three airmen who were on the
detail, but doesn't recall their
names. Note how the trees in the
background have recovered after
the leaves and smaller branches
were stripped by the fury of the
eruption. The hard work of the
"ash warriors" to clean the base
is obvious from the appearance
of the buildings and grounds.

Philippine Air Force units that participate in the ceremony.
Wonder why all the PAF guys look so happy?

     Maybe the answer is
     in this book by Donald
     Kirk, published by
     St. Martins Press
     New York.

The good and bad, it was always a balancing act at Clark.
One who expressed it best was Mark Hanneman, the OSI agent.
It was after the base closed. He was in Honolulu for a trial that was the
successful finish of a long investigation that started before Pinatubo exploded.
He recalled sitting on a Honolulu beach that evening with his wife who had evacuated
with their two daughters from Subic. They listening to the waves and watched a magnificent
sunset. But as his wife talked about their new life in Los Angeles Hanneman said his thoughts
drifted 3000 miles west, to that distant exotic place. He couldn't help wondering what was happening
back there? Was everyone all right? Would his Filipino and retired American military friends survive
the change? Would the new nationalist movement succeed in removing government corruption and
and starting fresh? He said his time in the Philippines was what psychologists call a significant
emotional event. “I can still hear the jeepneys and trikes clattering down the roads. Street
urchins yelling: "Give me pesos." Bar doorman advertising delights hidden within.”
Even many years later, he said, when he closes his eyes he still visualizes the lush
green countryside with Mount Arayat looming on the horizon over Clark. “Life
was good. It was a time I will never forget.” That sentiment has been
echoed over and over by nearly all who participate in this project to
celebrate a very special place and time in the history of the
United States military and those people who serve
their country far from America's shores.

If anyone has other photographs or items from the
last day they would like to add to this page
contact the e-mail address below.

Gateway

Pictures, Stories, Comments, Suggestions, Whatever Welcome:
WEB MASTER: Tom Utts
Zcap@usa.net

Update: 2002