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Clark AFB Vet Cemetery in the Philippines

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DoggyDaddy:
Clark AFB Vet Cemetery:      As Americans marked Memorial Day, a small band of veterans on the other side of the globe are waging a long-shot campaign on behalf of a silent constituency: thousands of U.S. service members, civilians and dependents buried in a largely forgotten American military cemetery in the Philippines. The veterans want the federal government to take responsibility for Clark Cemetery, a burial ground on a former U.S. military installation that contains remains dating to 1900. Among the more than 8,600 people buried there are at least 2,250 who were members of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Coast Guard and Philippine Scouts, a branch of the Army when the United States ruled the Philippines in the first half of the last century. Those buried at Clark include veterans of the Spanish-American War, the Philippine Insurrection, World War I, World War II and the wars in Korea, Vietnam and Iraq. But the cemetery has fallen through the cracks of the U.S. bureaucracy, leaving its upkeep to volunteers led by a local post of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and a U.S. company based in Kuwait.

     "These veterans have all but been forgotten on this special day we honor and memorialize those who have served our country," said Larry Heilhecker, commander of VFW Post 2485 and chairman of a group that has stepped in to manage Clark Cemetery. "It is a shame that this cemetery has been long neglected by our government." Heilhecker and others attributed the problem to an oversight when the U.S. government was negotiating with the Philippines 20 years ago on new long-term leases for Clark Air Base and Subic Bay Naval Base -- two of the most prized U.S. military installations in Asia. Those talks broke down in 1991 after the eruption of the Mount Pinatubo volcano heavily damaged both bases, forcing major evacuations by the Air Force and Navy. The Air Force formally handed Clark over to the Philippine government in November 1991, and the Navy sailed out of Subic a year later. Clark Air Base and its cemetery became the responsibility of the Philippine air force, which ceded control to the government's Clark Development Corp. But neither showed any interest in maintaining Clark Cemetery, which soon fell into disrepair. Grass was not mowed, bushes were not trimmed, flags were not flown, and vandals and looters descended on the 20-acre site. A monument was destroyed, and metal fencing around the cemetery was stolen. The air base itself fared worse, with looters hauling away everything from toilets to landing lights.

     Faced with what it viewed as conditions that dishonored those buried there, the local VFW post negotiated an agreement in 1994 to manage the cemetery and set to work restoring it. With no funding from the U.S. or Philippine governments, the post assembled volunteers for an initial cleanup and collected donations for ongoing maintenance. Peregrine Development International, a U.S. company based in Kuwait and headed by Navy veteran Dennis L. Wright, provided new cemetery fencing and funded a full-time security service to prevent more looting. The company is involved in a $2 billion project to develop an aviation-oriented business and logistics park at the former air base. U.S. veterans and former Philippine Scouts are still being buried at Clark at the rate of three or four a month. Most are Americans who retired in the Philippines and died there, but two were killed in Iraq -- a Filipino American soldier and a civilian Defense Department employee. The VFW spends about $1,000 a month to maintain the cemetery and pay the salaries of four full-time Filipino employees, Heilhecker said. But he estimated that it would cost about $500,000 to bring Clark Cemetery up to U.S. standards and at least $3,000 a month to properly maintain. Matthew P. Daley, a former U.S. diplomat who has taken an interest in the cemetery, said: "A first-class job could be done for $100,000 a year, which is not even spare change as our budgets go."

     The VFW and its supporters want the cemetery to be administered by either the American Battle Monuments Commission, a federal agency, or the National Cemetery Administration, a branch of the Department of Veterans Affairs. But spokesmen for both said Clark Cemetery did not seem to fit their criteria. The commission maintains U.S. military cemeteries overseas -- including the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines -- that are closed to new burials. The National Cemetery Administration maintains 131 national cemeteries in 39 states and Puerto Rico but none on foreign soil. Ike Puzon, a former Navy officer of Philippine descent who is helping to raise awareness of the issue in Washington, said negotiators should have tied the Clark graveyard to the Manila cemetery during the base talks two decades ago. "It's just an oversight that happened," Puzon said. "It was one of the issues that fell through the cracks." Now, he said, the solution may require an agreement between the U.S. and Philippine governments, such as a long-term U.S. lease of the cemetery, and congressional action directing the monuments commission to make an exception and administer it. "There are some jurisdictional issues, but we've gotten around these in the past when our veterans are engaged," Puzon said. "Anybody who says this is impossible is not saying the right thing."  [Source: Washington Post William Branigin article 31 May 2010 ++]jQuery(document).ready(function($){jQuery(function(){jQuery("#msg_19773").css("min-height", "50px");jQuery("#msg_19773").hoverIntent(function(){jQuery("#msg_19773").css("overflow-y", "hidden");jQuery(".sharethis_19773").delay(100).fadeIn();},function(){jQuery(".sharethis_19773").delay(300).fadeOut();});});});Tweet

DoggyDaddy:
Clark AFB Vet Cemetery Update   Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) on 27 JUN urged members of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee (SVAC) to support legislation she introduced to restore the Clark Veterans Cemetery located at the former Clark Air Base in the Philippines . The “Remembering America's Forgotten Veterans Cemetery Act” (S.2320), cosponsored by Sen. Mark Begich (D-AK), would require the American Battle Monuments Commission (AMBC) to restore, operate and maintain Clark Veterans Cemetery to honor the courageous Americans buried there. “The American veterans buried in Clark Veterans Cemetery deserve a dignified and well-maintained final resting place,” Ayotte said. “There is no reason the brave service members buried at Clark should be deprived of the honor they have earned and that veterans at other cemeteries are afforded. It's time for the US government to fulfill its responsibility to care for this sacred ground.” SVAC member, Rep. John Boozman (R-AR) took the opportunity to follow-up on the Clark Cemetery issue with a couple questions of his own which were directed to a VA panel of experts who appeared later in the same hearing. Despite his prodding for their views, VA staff declined to answer the Senator’s questions deferring any response to the ABMC where they felt responsibility for the Clark Cemetery rests.
[Source: AFSA Leg Up 28 Jun 2012 ++]jQuery(document).ready(function($){jQuery(function(){jQuery("#msg_27997").css("min-height", "50px");jQuery("#msg_27997").hoverIntent(function(){jQuery("#msg_27997").css("overflow-y", "hidden");jQuery(".sharethis_27997").delay(100).fadeIn();},function(){jQuery(".sharethis_27997").delay(300).fadeOut();});});});Tweet

DoggyDaddy:
Clark AFB Vet Cemetery Update 02:   American war veterans in the Philippines are urging the U.S. Congress to pass a bill that would require Washington to repair and maintain a cemetery north of Manila where
the graves of thousands of American servicemen and dependents have been covered in ash since a 1991 volcanic eruption. The head of an American veterans' group, Retired Army 1st Sgt. John Gilbert, said 4 JUL that the neglect of Clark Veterans' Cemetery is a disgrace to the memory of more than 8,000 U.S. servicemen and their dependents who are buried there. The U.S. Air Force hastily abandoned Clark Air Base, where the cemetery is located, after Mount Pinatubo's eruption. In 1994, American veterans were shocked to find the seven-hectare (17-acre) cemetery had become an ash-covered jungle of weeds, overgrown grass and debris with half of its old steel fence looted. They cleaned up the graves and have since struggled to maintain the cemetery through volunteer work and donations. Although the cemetery looks tidier today, about a foot (30 centimeters) of ash still covers it, partially burying tombstones and obscuring names, dates and epitaphs.
As America marked Independence Day, the U.S. veterans renewed their calls for Washington to fund and take charge of the cemetery's upkeep and for U.S. lawmakers to pass recently proposed legislation requiring a U.S. agency, the American Battle Monuments Commission, to manage it. The "Remembering America's Forgotten Veterans Cemetery Act (S.2320)," which was introduced 19 APR by New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte and Sen. Mark Begich of Alaska, has received the backing of several other senators. "We have a solemn obligation to care for our fallen," said Gilbert, whose group includes hundreds of American veterans who have settled in villages outside the former Clark Air Base. "That is not happening in the case of the Clark Veterans' cemetery." Gilbert appealed to Americans to help prod the U.S. government to "right a wrong," adding many of his fellow veterans, including those who help care for the cemetery, were getting old. Several die each year and are buried at the Clark cemetery, he said.
Philippine officials have authorized the veterans' group led by Gilbert to manage the Clark cemetery up to 2030, and have said they are open to allowing any U.S. agency to manage it. Another veteran, former Navy Capt. Dennis Wright, said many Americans have provided support to the cemetery in heartwarming ways. Students in two California grade schools have donated small amounts to buy hundreds of small American flags to be used in adorning the graves, and a 10-year-old boy in Indiana has been collecting signatures in malls and public places to urge Washington to take care of the cemetery. Several American veterans' organizations have also expressed support for the bill, he said. The Clark cemetery was developed between 1947 and 1950, when it was used to collect the remains and tombstones from four U.S. military cemeteries as American officials sorted out their dead from World War II and previous wars.
[Source: Associated Press Jim Gomez article 4 Jul 2012 ++]jQuery(document).ready(function($){jQuery(function(){jQuery("#msg_28082").css("min-height", "50px");jQuery("#msg_28082").hoverIntent(function(){jQuery("#msg_28082").css("overflow-y", "hidden");jQuery(".sharethis_28082").delay(100).fadeIn();},function(){jQuery(".sharethis_28082").delay(300).fadeOut();});});});Tweet

DoggyDaddy:
Clark AFB Vet Cemetery Update 03:   When he walks through the dilapidated Clark Veterans Cemetery in the Philippines, Dennis Wright says he feels one overriding emotion: anger. Before World War II, more
than 5,000 soldiers, sailors, Marines and Army civilians were buried at several cemeteries in the Philippines. Later, those remains were sent to Clark in order to make room for a cemetery for World War II fallen. In the ensuing years, military dependents were buried at Clark. Then in 1991, a massive volcano eruption covered the roughly 8,600 tombstones there in more than a foot of ash, just as the U.S. was leaving the Philippines and Clark Air Base. More than 20 years later, the gravestones lie halfway buried in ash and weeds. The local Veterans of Foreign Wars post has taken responsibility for maintaining the cemetery, but the donations it receives allow members only to keep the weeds at bay, said Wright, whose development company has offices in the Philippines and has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars for improvements.
$2.5M Restoral Needed

A headstone for Army Staff Sgt. Hershel Lee Covery at Clark Veterans Cemetery in the Philippines shows how nearly half of his headstone was covered by volcanic ash after the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo.
To Wright, the troops, veterans and military family members buried at Clark Veterans Cemetery have been abandoned by the U.S. government. “We take all these guys who died from 1900 to World War II — who were there, they were happy, they were resting in peace — we get them up, we march them to Clark, we put them in a boring field ... and then we forget these guys?” Wright said. “Now, I’m telling you, when you sit there and look at that, it can only do one thing to you: Make you mad and make you angry that our government has got 8,600 U.S. servicemen and their dependents who are buried at Clark who were abandoned and then forgotten.” The callousness toward those interred at Clark Veterans Cemetery stands in stark contrast to the World War II fallen who occupy their former resting places, said Wright, a retired Navy captain. “Is [a] World War II dead soldier more important than World War I dead?” he said. “Is he more important than Vietnam War dead? Is he more important than an Iraqi War dead?”
It would take about $2.5 million to get rid of all the ash and reset the tombstones, but the local VFW takes in between $25,000 and $30,000 in donations each year, so it can only maintain the cemetery as is, Wright said. Moreover, most of the VFW members are in their 60s, so they have problems keeping up the cemetery. “It shouldn’t be done by a bunch of aging veterans who aren’t getting any younger,” he said. That’s why Wright is chairman of the Clark Veterans Cemetery Restoration Association, a nonprofit organization advocating for the American Battle Monuments Commission to take over responsibility for the cemetery. Proposed legislation in the Senate would do just that and allocate $5 million to renovate the cemetery, but Wright does not expect the measure to pass during the current legislative session. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., who introduced a bill this year to have the American Battle Monuments Commission assume responsibility for the cemetery, said the U.S. government has a “moral responsibility” to take care of veterans cemeteries. “There’s no reason that the brave service members buried at Clark should be deprived of the honor they have earned and that veterans at other cemeteries are afforded,” she testified before the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee in June. “It’s time for the U.S. government to fulfill its responsibility to care for this sacred ground.”
The bill was co-sponsored by Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, who said the U.S. government needs to respect veterans after they have been laid to rest. “This cemetery has been unjustly left behind and it is a disservice to veterans who have passed and those living all over the world,” Begich said in a statement to Air Force Times. One of the most impassioned advocates for having the monuments commission take the cemetery under its purview has been Nathan Beeler, an 11-year-old from Avon, Ind., who has traveled to Washington to lobby Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and other top lawmakers. “I got involved with this in third grade because we were randomly browsing through the Internet and we went over a little article talking about a veterans cemetery buried in disgrace, and so I felt angered because our veterans died for our freedom and when they’re buried in disgrace, it doesn’t make sense, so that’s why I started to do something,” he said. When Beeler talks to members of Congress about the proposed legislation for Clark Veterans Cemetery, he makes sure to include that the bill is “budget neutral.” As the story about the cemetery gets out, the bill has a better chance of passing. “One person will be touched by it and then they’ll talk to more and more people, and I know many people were touched by it, so I feel very optimistic,” Beeler said.
[Source: AirForceTimes | Jeff Schogol | 4 Dec 2012 ++]jQuery(document).ready(function($){jQuery(function(){jQuery("#msg_28641").css("min-height", "50px");jQuery("#msg_28641").hoverIntent(function(){jQuery("#msg_28641").css("overflow-y", "hidden");jQuery(".sharethis_28641").delay(100).fadeIn();},function(){jQuery(".sharethis_28641").delay(300).fadeOut();});});});Tweet

IJK3770:
DD,
    I hope you dont mind but I copied and pasted this article on Facebook to give it a wider audience.  The article didnt say where to send donations to though.
Cheerily
IJKjQuery(document).ready(function($){jQuery(function(){jQuery("#msg_28643").css("min-height", "50px");jQuery("#msg_28643").hoverIntent(function(){jQuery("#msg_28643").css("overflow-y", "hidden");jQuery(".sharethis_28643").delay(100).fadeIn();},function(){jQuery(".sharethis_28643").delay(300).fadeOut();});});});Tweet

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