Neglected U.S. military cemetery in the Philippines relies on elderly veterans' volunteer work and donations

Retired Air Force Sgt. Littleton John Fortune of Chester, Pa., wipes his tears after praying at the grave of his son, Army Sgt. Maurice Fortune, who died in Iraq, at Clark Veterans Cemetery in northern Philippines. / BULLIT MARQUEZ/Associated Press

BY JIM GOMEZ- ASSOCIATED PRESS

CLARK, Philippines -- Walking among the tombstones in Clark Veterans Cemetery offers a glimpse of the wars America has fought and the men and women who waged them. But most of the grave markers have been half-buried for 20 years, and there is little hope that the volcanic ash obscuring names, dates and epitaphs will be cleared any time soon.

The cemetery was consigned to oblivion in 1991, when Mt. Pinatubo's eruption forced the U.S. to abandon the sprawling air base surrounding it. Retired U.S. soldiers, Marines and sailors volunteer to keep watch, relying on donations to maintain the grounds, but they lament that they're helplessly short on funds to fix things, and Washington is unwilling to help.

"It's the veterans' cemetery that America forgot," Vietnam War veteran and ex-Navy officer Robert Chesko said.

As America marks Independence Day, U.S. veterans who collect funds for the cemetery are renewing their calls for Washington to fund and take charge of the work.

Workers at the cemetery north of Manila recently dug to fully expose a gravestone for an Army sergeant who died in World War II in the Philippines. They discovered his wife's name engraved under his and a long-hidden tribute: "Daughter, sister, wife and mother of veterans."

More than 2,000 unknowns

It's impossible to say what else is hidden at the 17-acre site. It holds the remains of 8,600 people, including 2,200 U.S. veterans and nearly 700 Philippine Scouts who saw battle in conflicts from the early 1900s to the resistance against brutal Japanese occupation troops in the last world war.

Clark's dead also include military dependents, civilians who worked for the U.S. wartime government and at least 2,139 soldiers whose marble tombstones are labeled "Unknown."

"People celebrate on the Fourth of July, but they forgot the 8,600 who helped make that freedom happen," said former Navy Capt. Dennis Wright, who saw action in Vietnam.

"We're trying to get the U.S. government to assume responsibility for maintaining the cemetery so we can get it up to standards ... not on nickels and dimes and donations and gifts," said retired Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Larry Heilhecker, who was cemetery caretaker for five years until last month.

Manila gets the glory

Clark was a U.S. base for nearly a century and was once the nation's largest Air Force installation off the U.S. mainland. It served as a key staging area for U.S. forces during the Korean and Vietnam wars.

The 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 the dead from World War II and previous wars.

An American cemetery at what was then Ft. McKinley in Manila became the exclusive burial ground for all Americans and allied Philippine Scouts killed in World War II combat. The 152-acre Manila cemetery collected 17,202 dead, the largest number of American casualties interred in one place from the war.

Now closed to burials, the stunningly landscaped Manila cemetery became one of 24 American burial grounds outside the U.S. mainland. Nearly 125,000 Americans who perished in the first and second World Wars and the Mexican War are interred in those U.S.-funded overseas cemeteries, regarded as among the most beautiful war memorials in the world. The overseas burial sites are administered by the American Battle Monuments Commission, or ABMC.

The dead at Clark are not limited to World War II casualties. And unlike the Manila cemetery, it continues to accept burials. One U.S. veteran who lives in the area had his son buried there after he was killed in Iraq in 2004.

Donations make the difference

But Clark is not administered by the ABMC. The Air Force managed it from 1947 to 1991, when Pinatubo erupted. Even before that, negotiations with the Philippine government for a new U.S. military lease on Clark had bogged down, according to veterans.

Philippine authorities failed to look after the cemetery. In 1994, American veterans were shocked to find it had become an ash-covered jungle of weeds, overgrown grass and debris. Half of its old steel fence had been stolen.

Today, a pair of U.S. and Philippine flags flutter in the wind over the graves. A recently restored marble obelisk, pockmarked by World War II gun and artillery fire, venerates the unknown dead. A small sign at a new steel gate ushers in visitors with a tribute to the war dead: "Served with honor."

All the improvements came from donations. Wright's company spent $90,000 to construct a new concrete and steel fence and a parking lot and make other improvements. An old veteran, confined to a nursing home in Florida, sent one dollar in a touching act.

Retired U.S. Air Force Technical Sgt. Littleton John Fortune has been giving small amounts from his pension for the upkeep of the cemetery, where many of his friends lie. He said the worst day of his life came in 2004 when his son, a young Army sergeant, was killed by a bomb in Iraq. He buried his son at Clark.

Still, the Clark gravesites look forlorn compared to the American cemetery in Manila.

Dashing the hopes of the veterans, the ABMC and the Department of Veterans Affairs, which manages 131 U.S. mainland cemeteries, said Clark was outside their mandate.

'Will they still remember?'

Philippine officials have authorized an American veterans' group led by Chesko to manage the Clark cemetery up to 2030 and have said they are open to allowing any U.S. agency to manage it.

"Without them, we wouldn't have this freedom now," said Felipe Antonio Remollo, president of government-run Clark Development, which oversees the former base, now an industrial and commercial hub.

Clark's elderly veterans, some of whom become teary-eyed when remembering days with fallen comrades, worry about who will look after the cemetery as their ranks dwindle. Two passed away and were buried last week.

"We're getting old. We can feel it in our bones, you know, in mind and everything," said 65-year-old Chesko. He has wondered whether fallen soldiers' sacrifices still matter to young Americans.

"What bothers me sometimes is, will they still remember?" Chesko said.

The new cemetery caretaker, John Gilbert, said the veterans were not trying to pass the responsibility: "We are not ready to let this cemetery be taken back by the jungle. If we have to do it ourselves, we will do it. We don't leave our brothers behind."