[6] Commissioned on November 5, 1941 as the United States Naval Ammunition Depot (NAD) consisted of 6,368 acres this is now the Station's Southside area including the Cooper River waterfront.

During the mid-1950s, the installation was expanded, the Northside area, another 5,219 acres, was acquired by the Navy in January 1954 and called the Naval Weapons Station Annex and charged with new duties that included the handling of guided missiles and the docking, servicing and loading of submarines.

The base continued to grow through the 1970s, the Marrington area, an additional 2,894 acres located between Red Bank Road and Foster Creek, was added to the Station.

The Naval Nuclear Power Training Command school opened in 1998 and occupies over 50 acres in the central part of the original Marrington tract.

The Naval Support Activity expanded its mission and Department of Defense support role over time with over 40 tenant commands, and today is a training center, with the Naval Nuclear Power Training Command (NNPTC), Nuclear Power Training Unit, Propulsion Facility, and Border Patrol satellite academy; Naval Consolidated Brig, Charleston; Navy Munitions Command Unit Charleston; Explosive Ordnance Detachments; Marine Corps Reserve Center; Naval Information Warface Center Atlantic (NIWC-LANT, the largest employer in the Charleston area); 269 above-ground ammunition magazines, maintenance and storage of military ordnance including mines, and serves as an Army logistics hub, the busiest continental United States surface port in the defense transportation system.

[7] Today, Joint Base Charleston, encompassing over 20,877 acres and supporting 53 Military Commands and Federal Agencies, provides service to over 79,000 Airmen, Sailors, Soldiers, Marines, Coast Guardsmen, DOD civilians, dependents, and retirees.

NSA Charleston Navy personnel are embedded into the Air Base Wing installation support squadrons to carry out their functions.

In October 2020, the Coast Guard purchased 166 acres and two piers on the former Naval complex to construct a super base, so as to consolidate all Charleston area facilities and become the homeport for five NSCs and additional Offshore Patrol Cutters (OPCs).

The Coast Guard Base began construction in 2024 of the $160 million dollar project to build a new headquarters, renovate of one pier, and repair a shoreside bulkhead.