VAPOR TRAIL (CLARK)

In 1991, the Philippine Senate, by a narrow majority, took the historic step of voting out the presence of US military bases on its land. For nearly a century, two of these bases, the Clark Air Force Base and the Subic Naval Base served as the largest US military facilities outside the continental US and were employed as a principal staging area for the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the first Gulf War. Throughout these years of use, environmental regulation was reported to be extremely lax and upon its evacuation, the US forces did little to nothing to clean-up. As the treaty that originally allowed the presence of US bases did not specify automatic cleanup, the US has maintained that it is only responsible to abide by the environmental rules of the host country. Decades of use across enormous tracts of land in the northern island of Luzon has resulted in the land, the bay, and the forest area being littered with toxic chemicals, asbestos, and unexploded ordinance. (John Gianvito)

In the presence of John Gianvito.