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The largest American military base outside mainland
United States was located in the heartland of insurgency
By Lino L. Dizon
What is now the Clark Special
Economic Zone (CLEZ) in
Pampanga emerged from the
debris of a former American air
base bearing the same name,
in memory of Maj. Harold
Clark, a pioneer aviator who
died in a plane crash in 1919.
Vacated in 1991, it had been
the largest US military installation
outside mainland USA during
its heyday.
The military camp started
out actually as a grazing area for
horses of the US 5 th Cavalry during
the Philippine-American
War—these were the Yankees assigned
to pursue the fleeing
President Emilio Aguinaldo, who
was then holed up in his capital
in Tarlac. With the cessation of
hostilities, the area was declared
a military reservation by virtue
of an executive order dated September
1, 1903 and General Order
No. 4 of the US War Department
dated October 13, 1903.
The reservation was named Fort
Stotsenburg, after Col. John
Stotsenburg who died near
Quingua (Plaridel), Bulacan during
a skirmish with Filipino soldiers
on September 23, 1899.
From an original 7,600
acres, Fort Stotsenburg was expanded
to 158,277 acres, larger
than—as Prof. Roland Simbulan
likes to compare—the District of
Columbia, or about the size of
Singapore. The expansion was
by virtue of an executive order
dated April 30, 1908 signed by
President Theodore
102
Roosevelt. Three months earlier,
in January 1908, 1 st Lieut.
J. Lauber of the 2 nd Infantry,
and 2 nd Lieut. Kenyon A. Joyce
made a survey and eventually
recommended the expansion:
from a starting point of 1,773.46
meters of the original camp,
then 1,585.16 meters
NW to a cement monument
near the west end
of barrio Dolores, then
1,736.81 meters NE to a
cement monument on
the south bank of the
Bamban River, then
“following the
meanderings of the
Bamban River on its
south bank, to a cement
monument at the point
of confluence with the
Mabanglo River,” with a
distance in direct line of
4,739 meters, then
892.47 meters NW to a
wooden stake on the
summit of Panaysan Hill,
then 14,135 meters NW
to a cement monument
near barrio Telatau,
then 9,203.42 meters
NW on a triangulation
station on Mount Biclat,
then 17,139.29 meters
SW to the southernmost
peak of Mount Bocuel,
then 9,817 SW meters to
a flag pole on the summit
of a hill on the main
ridge of the Zambales
Mountains, then 15,650
meters SW to the sum-
mit of the south scarp of the gap
in the ridge east of Mount
Pinatubo, then 6,149.93 meters
NE of the existing reservation.”
Indeed, it was a vast
pastureland for American thoroughbreds
and stallions that encompassed
mountains and rivers
Mike McFerrin
and other hydro-geographic
forms. This is not to include yet
the separate O’Donnell military
reservation in Capas, Tarlac,
which was around 58,006.5
hectares “more or less,” and
that included rivers (Capatian,
Bangut and Caliuagin) and a
Top, goats loiter around the bomb arsenal at Clark (Dave Redman); above,
a herd of carabaos cross the military base’s main gate (Jeff Meier)