Clark Air Base

Photo set courtesy of Bill Louk

When you first arrived at Clark Air Base one of the first things you encountered as you stepped off the Flying Tigers stretch eight was the intense heat. It engulfed and almost overcame you immediately. One of the first places you were taken was the Security Police Headquarters building to check in.

After checking in you were taken to the K-9 barracks which became your home for the next 15 months.

Behind the barracks, less than a quarter of a mile away was a hill called Lilly Hill. Any handler that ever tried to venture into this area in search on intruders quickly became aware of the brutal terrain surrounding this hill.

During your base inprocessing you were introduced to and warned about things such as black marketing. One of your appointments takes you to Merchandise Control where you are issued a merchandise control card. This card allowed you to make purchases at the exchange, commissary and various shopettes around the installation. Each individual had a spending limit set on his commissary allotments and depending on where you lived determined whether or not you could take merchandise off base.

Downtown Angeles City and Balibago

Photo set courtesy of Yvonne Perez and Roger Bennett.

Shortly after you arrived you decided to venture off base for the first time. As you turned left off of Bong Highway and headed east on Mitchell Highway the first thing that you noticed was a huge, extinct volcano approximately forty miles ahead. This is Mount Arayat, (not Pinatubo). You passed two gates to your right along Mitchell Highway, Friendship Gate and Clarkview Gate. Quite a few of the G.I.s assigned to Clark lived in various housing developments outside these gates. There was Carmenville, Josefaville, Villasol, Clarkview Subdivision, Plaridel I and II, Hensonville, and a few others.

After passing these two gates you approached the Main Gate or Checkpoint as it was also known. This was the main center of arrival and departure from Clark. The base's bus terminal was located at this gate. Located on base at this gate was also a huge parking lot for folks who wanted to go downtown yet leave their privately owned autos on base. Back in the seventies there was also a shoppette and ice cream parlor alongside this parking lot. A lot of the base taxis also perched themselves in this parking lot awaiting fares back onto base. These fares were more than reasonable. You could catch a cab from Checkpoint to almost anyplace on base for under $1.00. Bus fares were about 15 cents back then. Also outside this gate and further along were other housing areas such as Mountain View subdivision, Diamond subdivision and Timog Park.

When you first arrived in country and ventured downtown for the very first time one of the things that struck you first was the smell. It's almost impossible to describe unless you've been there or someplace like it. Over time I came to the conclusion that the odor was a combination of cooking fires, rotting garbage, burning grass and other, unidentifiable things.

As you walked through the gate you were immediately set upon by kids peddling gum, flowers and so forth. Also, a few beggars dotted the sidewalks. The immediate area outside the gate was a continuous bustle of traffic and humanity. Three wheeled tricycles, known as trikes dotted the sides of the parking lots, their drivers trying to attract your business. To the right about a hundred yards was the staging point for jeepneys heading in all directions.

There were regular jeepneys which cost you about 15 cents. There were also special jeepneys which you could hire to take you, your buddies or you and your date to places of your choosing.

The regular jeepneys were open for everybody and were like taking a bus. Near where the jeeps congregated was the area where the mamasans exchanged your dollars to pesos on the black market. Of course, this was illegal but everybody did it and the authorities looked the other way. In the mid to late 1970s the exchange rate was about 7.50 pesos to the dollar.

Field's Avenue was one of the most heavily travelled by Americans at Clark. The entire length of Field's was dominated by shops, such as wood carving businesses, clothing stores, restaurants and of course the endless sea of bars and clubs.

Balibago, which was the town directly outside Clark's main gate must have been adorned by over a hundred bars at any given time, which stretched the Length of Field's Avenue, MacArthur Highway, 1st and 7th Streets and all the little side streets and back alleys along the way. The vast majority of these bars also employed bar girls. These were young ladies, usually between the ages of 16-25. Each bar employed anywhere from 5 or 6 in the smaller clubs to upwards of 25 to 30 in the bigger bars.

Back in the seventies most of the bars were pretty ordinary establishments. The big, plush dance clubs evolved during the eighties. In the seventies most of the clubs, with the exception of places like Al's Disco, The Ponderosa and The Summer Home were smaller. As you walked into any given club the interior was completely darkened and your eyes had to adjust. For the most part the bar running was done at night and this wasn't too much of a problem.

Inside the clubs themselves was a counter set up along one wall. This is where ice cold San Miguel Beer was purchased, along with mixed drinks from the counter girl. In the seventies a San Miguel cost about P1.50 or about fifteen cents. The prices were more than reasonable. Mixed drinks cost approximately P4.00 and lady's drinks cost around P5.00.

On the subject of lady's drinks. While in the club one of the bar girls would usually approach you and strike up a conversation. If you liked her you could order her a drink from the bar. She would nurse this drink and continue talking to you, hoping to get you to pay her bar fine for the night. This price was usually about P30.00 (about $4.00). The girl then became yours for the entire night. You could take her bar hopping or someplace else like a restaurant, but in the end you ended up in a hotel for the night.

As dog handlers we worked a six and three schedule my first time in the P.I., meaning that we worked three swings, three mids and had three days off. We also had a twenty four hour break sandwiched in between the swings and mids. My second tour we worked six swings then had three off. When we came off break we worked six mids, then had three off again. The cycles rotated in this fashion.

When I was there the first time we'd usually be downtown running the bars during the day on our twenty four hour break, then take about $30 when we went on break for our three days, run the clubs all three days and end up in a different girl in a different hotel each night. All this for $30.

In the Philippines running took on a whole different meaning than jogging. The term running meant bar hopping. It wasn't unusual for an entire flight of twenty five to thirty handlers to be out running the bars after the last mid, still dressed in full uniform. We'd get off the last mid and meet at a certain bar. For me this was usually The Butterfly. After congregating we'd set off as a unit and run the greater part of the day away until we were pretty well inebriated. Even the guys and gals who didn't drink alcohol went along. They just drank cokes and laughed at the rest of us.

This is pretty much how many of us spent a lot of our off hours. Mostly downtown drinking and running the bar girls.

Below are a few images of the local environment off base around Balibago and Angeles City.

Marc Hodgdon (Hodge)