No candles lit for the dead at Clark cemetery

CLARK FIELD, Pampanga — The dead are probably the only living memory of the Americans in this former US Air Force base — hundreds of them at the Clark cemetery which, ironically, will likely be the most forlorn this All Souls’ Day.

"We must also pray for them," said Sonny Lopez, information chief of the Clark Development Corp. (CDC), noting that majority of the tombstones at the 20.365-acre Clark cemetery have never been lit with candles.

The cemetery, along Clark’s main Roxas Highway, is the only area within this former US military base where the American flag still flutters all year-round.

It contains the remains of Philippine Scouts and US fighters in the Korean and Vietnam wars. But most of the cemetery’s dead are civilians, mostly Americans and Filipinos who had worked for the US government. A few were nationals of France, Spain, Canada, Japan, China, Vietnam and India.

Nearly 9,000 white tombstones dot the green expanse of the cemetery, about 50 of them belonging to American expatriates — or their dependents — who died in the Philippines, mostly in Angeles City and nearby communities where they had found their home even after the Americans abandoned Clark in the face of the Mt. Pinatubo eruption in 1991. The cemetery, however, can accommodate 12,000 graves.

"The Clark cemetery is not only a place for spiritual solace. It has also become a tourist attraction," Lopez said.

According to the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post 2485, composed mostly of US military retirees now based in Angeles, the oldest remains at the Clark cemetery belong to Charles Ehrnberg, whose tombstone identified him as a "civilian, quartermaster corps saddler" who died on Nov. 11, 1897.

The cemetery, in its present location, was actually developed sometime between 1947 and 1950. The remains entombed in at least four US military cemeteries at Fort Stotsenberg (which Clark used to be known when it was first established as a cavalry base of the American military in 1901), Fort McKinley and Sangley Point were transferred there.

The remains of those who died during World War II, meanwhile, were moved to the American cemetery in Manila.

The markings on the tombstones provide interesting insights into the lives of people at the turn of the 20th century. There are graves belonging to an entire family, their deaths bearing the same date. There are graves of Chinese cooks, and there are scores of tombs of "unknown" people.

Tourists pose for pictures in front of two monuments at the cemetery. One is a 6.5-foot marble obelisk which was erected in 1909 by the Ladies Memorial Association in memory of US soldiers, sailors and Marines. Another three-foot high marker declares the cemetery as "the last active US Air Force cemetery outside of the United States."