Stationed at the Command, Control, Communication, Computer, Cyber and Intelligence Service Center (C5ISC) in Alexandria, Virginia, the unit was activated in 1962.

Prior to this, ad hoc units raised from the Coast Guard Recruit Training Center in Cape May, New Jersey performed these functions.

Initially stationed in Baltimore, Maryland, the Coast Guard Ceremonial Honor Guard was redeployed to its current station at the Command, Control, Communication, Computer, Cyber and Intelligence Service Center (C5ISC) in Alexandria, Virginia as of 1965.

[2] The U.S. Coast Guard Ceremonial Honor Guard provides – along with similar units from the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, and U.S. Air Force – marching platoons for state and official arrival ceremonies at the White House and the Pentagon, for the quadrennial presidential inaugural parade, for annual Independence Day observances in Washington, D.C., as well as for public events (recently including New Orleans Mardi Gras and the Coast Guard Festival in Grand Haven, Michigan).

It also provides elements for military tattoos, change of command ceremonies, ship commissioning ceremonies, and its personnel serve as pallbearers, color guards, and firing parties at the funerals of Coast Guardsmen at Arlington National Cemetery.