Joint Base Charleston will be renamed by the Pentagon in honor of the late U.S. Senator and Air Force veteran Lindsey Graham, The Post and Courier reported.
Joint Base Charleston will be re-named in honor of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, Pentagon sayshttps://t.co/l3lidQjf9r
— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) July 28, 2026
Joint Base Charleston (JBC) opened in 2010, thanks in large part to Graham's advocacy and efforts to combine several North Charleston-based military installations as part of a Defense Department facilities reorganization. The base is critical to the country's national security, currently managing $9.5 billion in assets across nearly 24,000 acres, supporting over 90,000 personnel and 65 federal agencies.
Graham played a huge role in enhancing the base, securing hundreds of millions of federal funds for its missions, and also assisted in the recruitment of a new Boeing plant to construct its 787 Dreamliner. In May, he secured an additional $212 million to improve infrastructure and build new medical and dental facilities in JBC. “It is imperative this base has the necessary tools to protect South Carolina’s coastline and prevent deadly drugs, such as fentanyl, from reaching our shores,” Graham said at the time.
Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink wrote a letter on July 27 commanding staff to collaborate with Air Mobility Command and Joint Base Charleston leadership to take “all necessary and appropriate actions” to begin changing the name of the crucial East Coast air base to Joint Base Lindsey Graham.
In the letter, he wrote about the Senator's service:
Senator Graham’s lifelong devotion to the military was shaped by his own military service and his public service in both the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. His steadfast advocacy was instrumental in modernizing our military infrastructure and enhancing aviation security, ensuring that Joint Base Charleston remains as one of America’s premier military installations.
After attending law school, Graham served 33 years in the Air Force, including six years on active duty. He spent four of those years in the Air Force’s felony case division as the lead prosecutor out of Germany’s Rhein-Main Air Base. Following that, he served in the South Carolina Air National Guard. There, he served a similar role at Columbia-based McEntire Air National Guard Base during the first Gulf War. Graham also served two deployments in the Middle East while serving as a Senator.