Oct. 4--At long last, a labor of love by the Corsicana Field Aviation Heritage Foundation will begin to take shape, with the dedication at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at the Corsicana Municipal Airport of the sculpture, and three patios in the USAAF Cadet Memorial.

The life-sized bronze sculpture of the Corsicana cadet has been several years in the making, and will take its rightful place on a pedestal of black granite in the memorial park. The ceremony will include speeches, prayers, and an address by Maj. Gen. Frank J. Padilla, Commander, 10th Air Force, Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, Texas.

"That evening, the hangar dance is a celebration of the completion of the construction and dedication of the memorial park," said Sarah Farley, secretary of the Corsicana Field Aviation Heritage Foundation.

The Hangar Dance, a Corsicana airfield tradition, will begin with a dinner at 6:30 p.m., and the Corsicana Swing Orchestra as well as Sissy Perry and Debbie Carter will provide the musical sounds of the 1940s.

"Airports are kind of unique microcosms," said Gary Farley, president. "The average city the size of Corsicana does not have an airport as well-equipped or available as this one, and it's all because of the men who built it in World War II. This is part of the reason we're trying to preserve the history and make people aware."

Nearly 8,000 cadets entered the gates of Corsicana Field between 1941 and 1944, along a sidewalk which still exists today. The United States Army Air Force (USAAF) Primary Flight Training facility was constructed in 1940 at 9000 Old Navarro Road, with the first class of cadets arriving in early 1941. Civilian instructors took young men of 19 and 20 from all over the United States, Brazil, Mexico and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and taught them the basics of aviation. Those pilots went on to serve in every theater of World War II, and about a third of them gave their lives for their country.