CHARLESTON, S.C.—A major East Coast military base that serves as a key Air Force logistics hub was renamed after the late Sen. Lindsey Graham here Aug. 10 in a ceremony led by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Graham’s sister Sen. Darline Graham.
The new name of Joint Base Charleston is Joint Base Lindsey Graham in honor of South Carolina’s former senior senator, who died July 11 in Washington, D.C., at 71.
Sen. Darline Graham unveiled a sign for the base alongside Hegseth, South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster (R), and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Darline Graham was appointed by McMaster to fill her brother’s seat for the remainder of his term, which is entering its final months. She is now running for a full six-year term in the Senate with President Donald Trump’s support. The ceremony occurred one day before the Republican primary.
Lindsey Graham, a 33-year Air Force veteran, was one of the most influential Airmen ever to serve in Congress. He served as a judge advocate general on Active-Duty from 1982-1988, in the South Carolina Air National Guard until 1995, and in the Air Force Reserve until 2015. He retired as a colonel.
“Senator Lindsey Graham dedicated his life to serving this state and serving the armed forces of the United States. He served this nation both in uniform and in both houses of Congress,” Hegseth told the crowd that included members of Congress, local leaders, Airmen, and other service members. “But in both capacities, it was always the same mission. He knew the timeless truth that to ensure peace, we must be prepared for war.”
Graham was elected to the House of Representatives in 1994, where he served four terms before winning his Senate seat. He was approaching the end of his fourth six-year term when he died. He briefly ran for President in 2016, when he was a harsh critic of Trump, but he later became one of the President’s closest allies in Congress.
The installation—formerly Charleston Air Force Base before it merged with nearby Navy facilities in 2009—is the largest C-17 Globemaster III base in the world, forming a critical part of the U.S. military’s enterprise for moving materiel and people around the globe. Its C-17s carry a blue tail flash with the state’s palmetto flag design. Now, they will say “Graham” on the aircraft, according to the officials speaking at the ceremony.
“I believe that he will continue here and around the world to inspire Airmen for generations to come. And I say around the world, because … those gray tails that say ‘Charleston,’ now, when they land in far-flung places, will say ‘Graham.’ The world will remember that name,” Hegseth said, putting it up with the namesakes of other South Carolina bases and units:
- Shaw Air Force Base is named for Lt. Irwin David Shaw, a pilot who died in World War I
- McEntire Joint National Guard Base is named for Brig. Gen. Bernie McEntire, the first commander of the South Carolina Air National Guard, who went down with his F-104 in Pennsylvania to ensure it did not crash into populated areas.
- The 169th Fighter Wing of the S.C. Guard is nicknamed the Swamp Foxes for Francis Marion, a famed Revolutionary War commander
Before his death, Graham was the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee and supported the Trump administration’s $1.5 trillion proposed budget for fiscal 2027. The Pentagon’s budget remains in limbo in Congress.
Hegseth enlisted Graham’s memory to advocate for increased spending and the passage of a party-line reconciliation bill. The prospect of the funding getting through even a Republican-controlled legislature is murky. Hegseth said Graham wanted to increase the Pentagon’s budget even more than its $1.15 trillion base budget request and $350 billion reconciliation package.
“He looked at me and said, ‘How’s $355 billion sound to you?’” Hegseth said. “He wanted to give even more than $350 [billion]. He wanted to ensure our military was as equipped as humanly possible, because he was thinking of places like this one right here,” Hegseth said. “This department pays tribute to Lindsey Graham in the naming of this space. But there could be no greater tribute than Congress could give than to invest in our warriors for the full $1.5 trillion. … Fully funding our warriors would be one last great accomplishment for Colonel Lindsey Graham and a major part of his legacy.
“He believed in mission success. He believed in the troops. He believed in giving the troops everything they needed,” Hegseth added.
Bessent, a South Carolinian, also said Graham “believed that the first obligation of the federal government is to keep its people safe,” though he did not directly address the budget. Bessent said “Joint Base Graham is the backbone of our Air Force’s C-17 fleet,” which is a “reminder that Senator Graham was America’s workhorse.”
During his visit, Hegseth recognized service members, particularly from the base’s 437th Airlift Wing, who operated under fire during Operation Epic Fury against Iran, including Airmen who took cover from missiles around two dozen times and helped evacuate the planes from more vulnerable bases such as Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.
“I’ve been watching. I read the reports of how you iterate, do things faster, in congested logistics. It’s incredible, the backbone of what you have enabled in the theater,” Hegseth said. “The secret sauce of any successful mission—whether it’s Epic Fury, Southern Spear, Midnight Hammer, Absolute Resolve, Hawkeye Strike, you name it—are the logistics behind it.”
“All of it is enabled by all of you,” Hegseth told Airmen and other service members after the renaming ceremony.
Graham’s Story
While Graham’s domestic policies shifted over time, he remained a foreign policy hawk, pressing for tough U.S. policies towards Iran and Russia. He was also a strong supporter of Ukraine in its war with Russia. As part of that support, he was pushing for a sweeping sanctions bill on Russia at the time of his death. The Senate has since passed it in his honor.
Graham was the last surviving member of the Three Amigos—the other members were Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.)—who supported the invasions of Iraq and the continued presence of troops there and the surge of troops in 2007. Graham’s parents ran a pool hall, but both died while Graham was on an ROTC scholarship. To stay near home, Graham attended the University of South Carolina as both an undergraduate and for law school. He joined the Air Force Judge Advocate General Corps, deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan, and often traveling on official congressional delegations to war zones and other locations around the world.
Hegseth recalled meeting Graham roughly 20 years ago as a first lieutenant in the Army National Guard, and later as a captain while they were deployed to Afghanistan.
“That man had a schedule like nobody else,” Hegseth said. “But he was there to hear from us because he wanted his ear to the ground from the troops on what was actually happening in the war in Afghanistan.”
“Lindsey loved the Air Force,” said Darline Graham, who became her brother’s legal dependent after her parents’ death. “He loved its mission. He loved wearing the uniform of his country. His interest in foreign affairs and national security started with his service in the Air Force.”
Graham first came to prominence in the mid-1980s when he exposed errors in the Air Force’s drug testing, leading to an appearance on CBS’ “60 Minutes.” Graham left Active-Duty in 1989. He then joined the South Carolina Air National Guard and was activated to support Operation Desert Storm. After his national political career started, Graham joined the Air Force Reserve and deployed during America’s conflicts in the Middle East. He was promoted to colonel in 2004 before retiring in 2015 after 33 years in the Air Force.
“It was sometimes hard to tell if Lindsey was a senator who happened to serve in the Air Force or an Air Force lawyer who happened to serve in the Senate,” Darline Graham said. ”Such was his love for both. That’s the man this base is named after—a man who loved his country, loved his state and loved the United States Air Force. I could not be more honored or humbled for him to be recognized in such a fashion for his lifetime of service.”
