Clark Air Base Scrapbook

Cops in the 70s & 80s

These photos are from Ben T Robinson Jr., a retired Master Sergeant who was
in  the  6200 Security Police Squadron  from  July 1969  to  November 1970.

He worked in the conventional munitions area (the
bomb dump).   In mid 1970  there  was a controlled
burn  of vegetation  on a hill  that  ran  through  the
area. He said,  “One of our guys was exploring the
newly burned hill and tripped over what he thought
was a pipe sticking a few inches out of the ground.
We started digging and it turned out to be a World
War II Japanese anti-aircraft gun.” Ben went down
in the hole for this pictures. He said they eventually
got  the gun out of the ground,  but he doesn't know
what happened to it after that.  The picture below is
the 6200 SPS mounted patrol sometime in mid 1970.
Shortly after that,"the powers to be decided horse
patrols were  too expensive  and it was  disbanded.
 
 
 

The next photos were sent by Dan Clark, who was a young security policeman on his
first assignment in the PI from 1981 to 1982. He was promoted to A1C while he there.
 

1981
(L)  A1C Bob Kirkman (leaning against patraol car) and another 3rd SPS cop keep a watchful eye
on things after a dispute with locals boys resulted in a ferocious rock bombardment. According
to Dan Clark relations were usually amicable for guards at that post. One reason was they
were good for for business at the near-by sari-sari store. He said the worst things
about Sapangbato post were flies, noon heat, and using a dipstick to check
bicycle-mounted slop buckets for contraband. (R) SSgt Wall and A1C
(now MSgt, retired) Ken Rice in a discussion with the Negrito
village chief. The Negrito Gate was considered the worst
daytime duty due to heat and lack of shade.
 

Dan checks on troop pulling
fence sentry. After completing
his tour, Dan earned his degree
and joined the U.S. Army. He is
now a Major assigned to as the
brigade operations officer,
Active Duty Army Reserve.
He said they have 32 units in
five states (mostly MPs), and
22 units are deployed outside the
U.S. "Managing nondeployers in
mobilized units' rear detachments
is a lot like herding cats, so I
stay busy helping prepare them
get ready to deploy.
 
 
 
 

   The 13th Air Force Honor Guard, November 1981, was formed after the 13th AF commander
    requested "volunteers" to serve on a detail for a wide variety of functions, such as retreats,
retirements, formal dining's, IP visits, and parades. Note those chrome helmets.
 

Since the next pictures features the activities of K-9 cops, it is only right to start
with the self professed: "World's greatest dog handler!"
 

1977--Like many young men right out of K-9 tech school, Dale Warke found himself on the
road to Clark.  (L) What he calls "going native in Don Bonafasio." Looks to me like he's
doing Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now! (R) In front of an M-706 weapons carrier. You can
read about Warke's adventures on the Nighthawks K-9 web site, check Links, Intro Page.

(L) An F-15 parked in front of
Mt. Arayat. The fighter came
from Kadena for a Cope
Thunder, exercise -- war games
that provided realistic combat
training for all USAF
units in the Pacific.
 
 
 
 
 
 

This F-5 belong to the aggressor squadron
at Clark. In Cope Thunder exercises they
played the part of the enemy against such
USAF aircraft as the F-15 above. Schweers
said, "The shot of the F-5 was on the South
Ramp was taken through a Starlight Scope.
He was a "Shadow Team" Leader that night.
He said I took the Starlight scope off his
M-16. He said"I pushed my camera against
the eye piece and had a heck of a time
trying to focus both the camera and the
scope, not to mention holding them both.
This is probably the most interesting
photo in my collection.
 
 

Out in 'da bush! -- (R) On this occasion
Schweers was had a chance to get away
from the flightline. He was a member
of a group of cops sent to look for a
helicopter that crashed. "We were
trying to get to the site to relieve the
first search team." Here they stopped
at a Negrito village to see if anyone
knew anything about the crash site.
 
 
 

(L) Schweers said, "We were trying to get to the site to relieve the first search team
but the rainy season flooding prevented us from going down this road any further.  We
had to return to the base and go out with a helicopter." He added that he never understood
why they didn't do that the first place.  The people in the road are not the GIs, they are
under the bamboo overhang on the hut. (R) While waiting around Schweers took
a picture of a Negrito woman sitting beside the road watching the Americans.

1988--An outstanding photo that Keith Nano said was just a lucky snap by a friend.
He was standing with his dog on a cliff  in a munitions storage area checking
an avenue often used by intruders. The name of the friend has slipped
away, but they were all B Flight Nighthawks. He said K-9 cops
had a reputation for being the "rowdiest group at Clark."
And most felt an unspoken obligation to live
up to their reputation.

Nano and Don Allen in
Area 1 before dusk.
This illustrates the
treacherous terrain, just
behind them is a steep
drop-off going to the
Bam Bam washout--a
densely vegetated valley.
 
 
 
 

Nano and his K-9,
Bandit P 189,
on patrol going
through high
grass in a gully.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

EST during their protective security ops at  Crow Valley. From the left they are:
Airmen Putman, Nano, Dorn, Gilvin, Caropreso, Wilson, Santimaw and Dziurgot.
 
 

EST members at the range. For layout purists, no Nano on the left isn't trying to off
the guys in the truck. By 1989, there had been some terrorist killings and even more threats
directed against the Americans at Clark and SPs had been singled out as a specific targets.
Then in April, on the way to the range, one truck drivers spotted a suspicious looking
wire across the road. Fortunately, he acted on his suspicions. The convoy stopped, turned
around and returned to the base. A subsequent check discovered enough explosives buried
in evenly spaced holes in the road that would have caused a 150-foot kill zone and disable
the heavy vehicles. There was also evidence that a 19-man NPA sparrow unit had hidden
in caves in the thick vegetation beside the road waiting to kill anyone who wasn't already dead.
 

In the latter half of 1989, reacting to the increased terrorist activity, some voluntary,
low key, dependent evacuations were undertaken. Members of the EST and the OSI were
trained to conduct protective security for convoys to Subic Bay. Nano (back row, 4th from
the right) was part of a group of Nighthawks involved in an evacuation in September. Team
members in civilian clothes rode on the buses and in lead and trail vehicles. Nano was in the tail
vehicle, which he said was a combat equipped Suburban. "There wasn't a single vehicle that
approached us from the read or sides that wasn't in someone's cross hairs." However, he said
all went well. Overall, as he remembers the numbers evacuated was in the hundreds.

1988
"Clark is a place you'll never
forget," said Rob Elston, (left)
He was a 21 years old cop when
he went to Clark for two years
in February 1987. "You may
have loved it while you were
there, or you may have hated
it, but there is one thing for
sure; not a day  goes by that
you don't miss it in some way."
Elston and SRA Ken Epps
"remove" unauthorized nipa
huts located on base
property after the PC
removed the squatters.
 
 
 
 
 

Rob Elston visiting Peter Fonda
and Mako during the make of a
feature film in the Philippines.
The quality of the photo isn't
great, but how many pictures
do most of us have with
Hollywood celebs?
 
 
 
 
 

Elston was TDY to Manila for an exercise called Operation Balikatan (hand in hand).
He said, "We stayed in a luxury hotel and traveled to and from work wearing civilian clothes
often carrying automatic weapons hidden in a duffle bag. Our assignment was to protect a
secret communications site in Metro Manila in a Philippine Army Fort. My friend Scott and I
befriended a hotel bellhop and learned American actors and actresses often stayed there
while filming in the Philippines.  We found out which room they were staying in and simply
call them up on the telephone. The most memorable was Peter Fonda who invited us to a
remote location in the jungle where he was filming a Vietnam movie.