Approximately 250 aviation personnel are staffed at the facility, in addition to Coast Guard Reserve personnel and Coast Guard Auxiliary members that augment its Active Duty forces.

CGAS Atlantic City's mission supports a wide range of Coast Guard operations such as search and rescue (SAR), Maritime Law enforcement, port security, Rotary Wing Aerial Intercept, Aids to Navigation support and Marine Environmental Protection for both District One and District Five, which includes the coastlines of Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia as well as protecting the interior bays and rivers such as the Chesapeake, Delaware, Hudson and Long Island Sound.

Since 2006, CGAS Atlantic City has provided aircrews and aircraft to the Washington, D.C. area as part of Operation Noble Eagle, a Department of Defense (NORAD) mission to protect the airspace around the nation's capital.

The first life-saving stations along the New Jersey coastline were built in 1849 in response to a deadly string of shipping accidents.

Originally organized into two separate group offices based in Atlantic City and Cape May, these two command structures were combined in 1982.