DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Air Activities of Texas, Corsicana Field. Now, before the United States ever stepped foot into World War II, somebody in Washington had a problem on their hands. They needed pilots — a whole lot of them — and the Army Air Corps alone couldn't train them fast enough.
So the government did what governments sometimes do when they're in a hurry: they contracted with civilian flying schools to pick up the slack. One of those schools took root right here in Navarro County. In December of 1940, Air Activities of Texas, Corsicana Field, was authorized to provide primary flight training — the second phase of a three-level process.
Not the first, not the last, but the middle stretch, where raw recruits started to look something like pilots. Construction on a four-hundred-acre tract began in February of 1941, and they didn't ease into it. More than two hundred and fifty laborers went to work raising not just a landing strip, but hangars, barracks, offices, maintenance buildings, and a mess hall and kitchen.
You build a city like that when you know what's coming. By March, the first class had arrived — fifty-one cadets, standing on fresh concrete, facing ten weeks of intense training. Fifty-one.
Write that number down, because it won't stay that small for long. By 1943, a single class held more than three hundred cadets. And by 1944 — just three years after those first fifty-one walked in — eight thousand, four hundred and eighty cadets had received flight instruction across thirty-seven training classes.
That is not a typo. Eight thousand, four hundred and eighty. To run an operation that size, the field employed more than five hundred and fifty civilians by January of 1944.
That kind of payroll doesn't stay on base — it spills out into town, into the diners and the hardware stores and the local economy in ways that a community doesn't forget easily. But the war, as wars do, eventually began winding down. And as it did, the need for the flight school became unnecessary, and it closed.
Simple as that. The cadets stopped coming, the engines went quiet, and four hundred acres of runways and barracks sat waiting for whatever came next. What came next, in 1946, was Navarro Junior College, which opened on the site and made use of it until 1951.
After that, the City of Corsicana stepped in, purchasing the property in 1963 and turning it into a municipal airport. From flight school to junior college to municipal airport — the ground here has had more lives than most. But if you listen closely on a still evening, you might just catch something in the air above this old four-hundred-acre patch of Texas.
Eight thousand, four hundred and eighty pilots learned to fly right here. Some of that has got to linger.
What the marker says
Prior to the United States entry into World War II, the U.S. Government contracted with a number of civilian flying schools to assist in training military pilots for the Army Air Corps. In December 1940 the Air Activities of Texas, Corsicana Field, was authorized to provide primary flight training, the second phase of a three-level process. Construction of the facility on a 400-acre tract of land began here in February 1941, and employed more than 250 laborers. In addition to a landing strip, they built hangars, barracks, offices, maintenance buildings, and a mess hall/kitchen. In March, 51 cadets arrived to complete 10 weeks of intense training. By 1943, each class contained more than 300 cadets. By 1944 8,480 cadets received flight instruction in 37 training classes. The flight school employed more than 550 civilians by January 1944, and provided a significant impact on the local economy. As the war drew to a close, the need for the flight school became unnecessary, and it closed. Post-war use of the property began in 1946 with the opening of Navarro Junior College, which occupied the site until 1951. The City of Corsicana purchased the site in 1963 for a municipal airport. (1996)