Contact Information
Joint Base Charleston South Carolina is one of the 12 new bases on the US territory, which showed up after the 2005 congressional legislation implying the base consolidation by merging multiple bases. 24 small bases had to merge one with another, resulting in 12 new and powerful bases. This one is the result of the October, 2010 merge between the Charleston Air Force Base and the Naval Support Activity Charleston. The place is now operated by the US Air Force. It is located in North Charleston, in the eastern side of the state. The airport at the base is also used for civilian flights and even international flights. At the same time, the commercial airlines benefit from it too. The place currently hosts over 20000 individuals, counting active troops, reserve soldiers and civilians.
History
The history of this base dates back to 1919. One of the Air Force leaders started looking for a good spot in the area for a new airfield. Nothing could be found until 1927, when a different superior found this place excellent. The actual construction began in 1928. Foreseeing the potentially commercial purpose in this area, the authorities decided to purchase almost 500 more acres for a new airport in 1931. The ’30s came with some basic improvements for the airport. Some of them can be seen today too. During the Great Depression times, the city run out of funds for it. With the help of a work administration, the airfield “lived” to see two paved runways. One of them was 1.1 km long, while the other was shorter – less than 1 km. A small part of the money was used to improve and update the lighting system to the latest technologies. More acres were purchased in 1937 to expand the airport due to the high popularity it was gaining.
Joint Base Charleston South Carolina saw a new round of improvements right before the USA had to join World War II. The civilian flights were still allowed, even after the Pearl Harbor attacks. Soon after the attacks, the local airport was pumped with troops, squadrons and units. At the same time, its purpose for the war was to play the final training role in turning professional pilots into experts.
Aside from the Cold War, the base didn’t play any major roles in the upcoming wars led by Americans.
Units
Joint Base Charleston South Carolina is now the home of the 628-th Air Base Wing, which consists of 3 groups – the medical, mission support and staff directorate – and multiple subgroups. Other than that, the place also hosts multiple tenant units, such as the 437-th Airlift Wing or the 315-th Airlift Wing. Most of the tenant units are deployed here for short periods of time.
Housing
The housing at Joint Base Charleston South Carolina mostly depends on your preferences. Finding an on site place is not that hard. Get in touch with the local service and request more information. The off site system is more expensive, but it usually comes with more facilities.
