by Thomas C. Utts
Sunday, June 9, the day before the evacuation,
was a day Bear well remembers. It
brought the most vigorous ash emissions to
date, and was also his 40th birthday. "
We were playing softball just off base and
the ash flowing out of the volcano."
He said the eruption was all all people talked
about at Garfield's bar
where they gathered after the game.
(Unless otherwise noted, all photos below are
by Bear Sobkoviak)
Last Day of Calm
June 11, before
the first major
eruption Lt. Col.
Ron Rand was
interviewed in
front of 13th
Air Force HQ
with parade
field in the
background.
//
On June 12, the first large eruption occurred
and everyone was order to go to the
Dau Complex, a rallying point on base furthest from Pinatubo. Bear
was following Lt. Col.
Rand and Maj. McKenzie, another 13th Air Force officer working with
them. As they crossed
the flightline, the colonel stopped and got out of his car. Bear
followed suit, and
noticed them staring at something. He turned and saw the eruption.
It was
the first one, but it wasn't the big one. This what scientists
later called
Mount Pinatubo clearing its throat. (L) Bear said he took this
picture of the colonel from a low angle to dramatize
the eruption's cloud. (L) Another view
a few minutes later.
After a couple throat clearing eruptions which only dusted Clark
and Subic, the big one came
in the early morning hours of Saturday, June 15, forever after known
as Black Saturday.
There aren't many good pictures because it happened in the middle
of a typhoon, and
unlike earlier eruptions the blast was so huge it just didn't make
for good photos.
That was just the beginning of more than 8 hours of continuous earthquakes
and
eruptions that turned day into night. Soon after it began the bugout
order was
given. The last remaining Air Force people at Clark left. (L) They
join those
already at the evacuation area at a college on Mount Arayat.
(R) Bear's bugout vehicle, a Trans Am, after his arrival.
Each night while there, he slept in the car.
After rallying at the college, the Public
Affairs team (L to R) SMSgt. Art Futch,
Lt. Col. Rand, TSgt. Sobkoviak and Maj.
McKenzie, passed on the little information
available, and worked on what Bear called
rumor control--disavowing wild speculations.
They ended the very long day at a small
cantina just outside the college. Notice the
every present radios that were issued to
all ash warriors. Rand was part of the first
group to return to Clark the next morning.
The others stayed two days longer, until
the colonel called saying they were needed.
Driving back on base the third day. (L) Passing the weather station.
(R) Road to the dorms.
Bear said one of his first thoughts was, "The trees! Oh my poor
trees."
Bear stands on a pyroclastic flow produced
by the June 15 eruption. Superheated ash and
gases, 40 feet thick in places, came within feet
of covering Clark. The flow stopped near the
Mactan Housing Area gate, by the Bam Bam
River valley. This became a favorite spot to
take visiting reporters to show how close Clark
came to total destruction. Just 12 inches under
the surface the temperature was measured at
1250-plus-degrees-fahrenheit. A few days later
Bear and three others from public affairs
played soccer on top of the flow. In the photo
Bear holds rocks he picked up. "They were
unbelievably hot and stinky," he said, and
burned his hands.
(Photo
by Ron Rand)
A car badly in need of a
wash. The Mactan
Housing area is back
behind the trees.
Yes, it is supposed to be dark This
photography was taken during mid day
in an area nicknamed The Dark Side
of The Moon. The term was coined
by
the cops for a base housing, area (note
roof and tree tops at the bottom) in the
path of thick ash clouds that came down
Pinatubo's slopes. Bear said even after
most other areas on Clark were almost
normal -- just some haze due to ash sus-
pended in the air, with the sun shining
through -- it was literally a wall of dark-
ness -- as soon as you entered, the lights
went out. Vehicle he adlights
cast just
enough illumination to drive cautiously.
Being out in it for just a moment resulted in getting covered
with ash. Those conditions lasted for more
than 10 days after their return, until the eruptions became
less frequent and less powerful. Even after
that, an occasional ash cloud would drift over an area and
for a few hours
the Dark Side of the
Moon was back.
The recently completed base housing area pictured during an eruption
in late June.
Large scale eruptions and earthquakes continued throughout June
and July.
Pinatubo was still burping up large ash clouds into October.
The PAO team, (L to R) A1C Dean Miller, Lt. Col. Rand, Maj.
McKenzie,
the Bear, and SMSgt. Futch pose in front of a sign put up in front
of the Officer's Club
a few days before the big one to promote a club event. It
turned out to be so prophetic, the
sign remained in place until the base was closed . Bear said it
became a popular place to have
your photo taken. "Lucky for us, and everyone else at Clark, it
didn't foretell another Pompeii."
Early July eruption
seen through the
fence of the Cope
Thunder Ramp.
Midday ash fall
in September.
In October Bear accompanied some corespondents on a helicopter flight
over Clark.
Top (L) 13th Air Force HQ and parade ground, somewhat scraped off.
(R) Gym area.
(L) BX warehouses. (R) The dorm area.
Same spot, a world of difference.
(L) View of Pinatubo on June 13 before the big one.
(R) Two months
later. Bear said he believes the buildings were the Civil Engineering
complex.
In those two months he said rain had compacted the ash and the wind
had blown it
around. He said, "I was really surprised how fast nature rebounded
after the eruption."
A report by the US Geological Agency said the crest of the mountain
stood 5725 feet
above sea level before the eruptions. At midday on June 15 it was
reduced by
nearly a thousand feet to approximately 4855 feet. Bear used computer
magic combining his two photos for the fascination comparison below.
October view of (L) Pinatubo's huge new crater -- a caldera more
than 1.5 miles
across. (R) Another large crater several miles down the slope toward
Clark caused by a pyretic eruption where water hit an
ash hot spot resulting in an eruption.
On Friday, Nov. 22, Sobkoviak and SMSgt. Art
Futch boarded a bus to leave Clark. Before
it left to
take them to Manila, Col. Freeman, the 13th
AF deputy
commander handed out 13th AF key chains to
each person and
shook their hands. Lt. Col. Rand remaining
behind for the turnover
ceremony. More on
that is contained on "The Last Day" page.
On Tuesday, Nov. 26, in front of the 13th Air
Force headquarters building,
the United States Air Force lowered the American
flag at Clark Air Base
for the last time. After nearly 90 years the
word went out:
"GI Joe Doesn't Live Here
Anymore."
===========================================================================
Technical Sergeant Bear Sobkoviak completed
more than 20 years of Air Force service upon
his returned
to the United States and retired. He now lives
in central Oregon.
Lieutenant Colonel Rand went on to the top
public affairs job in in the
United States Air Force -- the SAF/PA (Secretary
of the Air Force
Public Affairs) -- and is a brigadier general.
A year later Subic closed.
Joe Monday sent the photo
of the front page from the
Stars & Stripes. The photo
says it all. "Bye-bye GIs,
we're really gonna
miss you!"