MARIETTA - The Georgia National Guard will take ownership of Naval Air Station Atlanta property during a formal transfer ceremony at 10 a.m. Saturday at NAS-Atlanta in Marietta.

The facility will then be named the Gen. Lucius D. Clay National Guard Center, in honor of the World War II veteran and coordinator of the Berlin Airlift, who was a Cobb native. About 1,500 full- and part-time Georgia National Guard soldiers and airmen will eventually call the Clay National Guard Center home.

Guest speakers will include Gov. Sonny Perdue; Navy Rear Adm. Townsend Alexander, southeast commander; Navy Capt. Chuck Mingonet, NAS commanding officer; and Maj. Gen. William T. Nesbitt, adjutant general of Georgia.

Members of Georgia's Congressional and state delegations, and other metro Atlanta guests have been invited, but the event is not open to the public.

Following the transfer ceremony, a groundbreaking ceremony will be conducted for the Georgia Department of Defense's new 220,000-square-feet Joint Force Headquarters. Cobb Commission Chairman Sam Olens and U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Marietta) and Nesbitt are scheduled to speak.

The $29 million building will house soldiers, airmen, state and federal employees, and contractors. It's financed by the state and federal governments. Construction and renovation of other buildings are set to be completed in January 2012.

By that time, the Guard move-in is expected to be completed.

"We anticipate that more than 700 full- and part-time Georgia Guardsmen and civilian employees will be working and training at the National Guard facility in the future," said Lt. Col. Beth Thelen of the Georgia Army National Guard.

"This number along with the number of full- and part-time Georgia Army, Air Guardsman and civilian employees already working on Dobbins Air Reserve Base, or scheduled to move to Dobbins, translates to approximately 1,500 personnel that will frequent restaurants and businesses in Marietta and Cobb County," she said.

Low-flying aircraft may be seen in the air Friday, practicing flyovers and ceremonial cannon fire for Saturday's event, weather permitting.

Naval Air Station Atlanta will officially close on Wednesday, as directed by the 2005 federal Base Realignment and Closure Commission.

Mingonet said the transfer is a bittersweet moment.

"The bittersweet part is that you grow attached to this area, base and the people who work here and sad to see it go," the NAS commanding officer said. He said the good part is seeing the base used by another military branch.

NAS opened as a wartime training base in Chamblee in 1941, and the Marietta facility was built in April 1959, occupying 107 acres next to Dobbins Air Reserve Base off Atlanta Road.

In 2005, NAS was included on the nonpartisan BRAC list, and the Georgia National Guard saw an opportunity to move its headquarters to Marietta.

The Georgia National Guard, which includes the Army National Guard, the Air National Guard and the Georgia State Defense Force, had been based since the 1950s on Confederate Avenue in Atlanta. It began relocating to NAS-Atlanta in September 2007, after the property was transferred from the Navy to the Army. As part of that move, the Georgia Military Institute - which serves as an officer candidate school for the Guard - returned to Marietta in July 2008.

The Guard will take possession of the property and facilities at NAS, which includes about 100 buildings totaling more than 600,000 square feet. It also includes hangars, classrooms, administrative space and temporary housing.

NAS has been home to a variety of units through the years, but they have now either been decommissioned or shifted elsewhere. Navy aircraft, personnel, equipment and support are moving to Navy Joint Reserve bases in New Orleans and Fort Worth, Texas.

However, Mingonet will stay in Cobb, where he has a home in Acworth with his wife, Sandy. He will retire from the Navy in March after 25 years of service. He said he has not seen a more supportive community of the military than Cobb.

"This community has got to be the most patriotic," he said.