The air station's missions included search and rescue, law enforcement, counting migratory waterfowl for the U.S.

CGAS Salem was built with a barracks, hangar, a radio shack,[2] an apron, and a seaplane ramp; it never had facilities for fixed-wing landplanes.

The station was built on Winter Island, on land adjacent to the War of 1812 vintage Fort Pickering, and on or near the site of the construction of the sail frigate USS Essex by one of Enos Briggs' shipyards in 1799.

In October 1944 the station was the first on the eastern seaboard to be designated as part of the Air-Sea Rescue Service.

It was replaced by Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod in 1970, and CGAS Salem closed that year.