The cemetery is the burial place for thousands of mainly American veterans and Filipino Scouts who served in the United States Army, and who died in conflicts other than World War II or on military bases in the Philippines.

As a result of the war, the United States acquired the Philippines from Spain and established a number of US Army posts throughout the islands.

During World War II, the Fort McKinley military post cemetery was the scene of heavy fighting because it was strategically situated on a hill that overlooked the city and Manila Bay.

During the battle to liberate Manila in early 1945, thousands of graves and cemetery records were lost or damaged, including a large marble obelisk Monument to the Unknown Dead.

The Clark Veterans Cemetery is located just inside the main gate of the former base and consists of 20.365 acres (8.241 ha) with room for 12,000 plots.

Work began on preparation of the new site in 1947 with the first batch of graves used for burial of remains arriving from Fort McKinley in January 1948.

[4][5] In 2011, an American small business, Peregrine Development International, operating at Clark in conjunction with the Kuwaiti sponsored Global Gateway Logistics City Project, collaborated with the VFW Post 2485 to donate and construct a new perimeter fence and gate.

Today, the Clark Veterans Cemetery contains the remains of almost 8,600 individuals with the earliest recorded burial being Private Santiago Belona, a Philippine Scout who served in the US Army and died on January 13, 1900.

In addition to the 650 Philippine Scouts, there are thousands of U.S. veterans from the US Army, US Navy, US Marine Corps, US Air Force and US Coast Guard and their dependents, which comprise the preponderance of the burials.

This monument was constructed of Vermont marble imported in 1907 and erected in the Fort McKinley cemetery and dedicated in 1908 by the Ladies Memorial Association of Manila.

It is a Bataan Death March monument dedicated to fellow Elks, both American and Filipino, who passed within 100 yards (91 m) of the cemetery on the Death March trains that carried them from the City of San Fernando in Pampanga to Capas in Tarlac and on to their final imprisonment at the Imperial Japanese Camp O'Donnell prisoner of war facility.

[2][6] In February 2013, retired U.S. Navy Captain Dennis Wright said that an agreement still needs to be made between the United States and the Philippines in order for it to operate the cemetery which is seen as being a tourist attraction by the Clark Development Corporation.