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CHARLESTON, S.C. – The Pentagon officially renamed an air base in South Carolina after late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a fierce defense hawk who died suddenly last month.
Joint Base Charleston, which supports over 60 Pentagon and federal agencies and located in North Charleston, S.C., was renamed to Joint Base Lindsey Graham on Monday.
The formal ceremony was attended by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Sen. Darlene Graham (R-S.C.) and South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster.
All speakers praised Graham’s military service, dedication for the state of South Carolina and his work in both chambers of Congress.
“Protect your people, protect your state, protect your sovereignty, or you will lose it to someone else who is willing to take it from you,” Hegseth said of Graham’s mindset.
During his speech, the Pentagon chief said in his final years, Graham took on “radical leftist ideology that had run rampant in the media, in academia and even among a few members of Congress.”
“This nation spent 45 years fighting communism in the Cold War, and that was 30 years ago,” Hegseth said. “Now it seems that many people have forgotten the reality of what communism looks like.”
Hegseth also reiterated the Pentagon’s push to secure a record $1.5 trillion defense budget.
“‘This is the best military budget I’ve seen since I’ve been in Congress,’” Graham told Hegseth, according to the Pentagon chief.
Bessent, a South Carolina native, lauded Graham’s dedication to the military too.
“He was a distinctly American assent from Central, South Carolina to the pinnacle of the United States Senate,” Bessent said during his brief remarks.
The ceremony was also attended by some members of South Carolina’s House delegation, including Reps. Nancy Mace (R).
Graham, who served more than three decades in the Air Force, died from an aortic dissection on July 11 in Washington, D.C.
Graham’s service in the Air Force began in the 1980s after attending law school with six years of active duty, including four years as the lead prosecutor at Rhein-Main Air Base in Germany.
The late senator transferred to the South Carolina Air National Guard in 1989 and was a prosecutor at McEntire Air National Guard Base during the first Gulf War.
Graham, who deployed twice to the Middle East, was a major advocate for the base in Charleston, which is home to the biggest fleet of C-17 cargo planes and over 50 military commands.
Active duty 437th Airlift Wing, which deployed airmen and aircraft around the world in support of operations involving airland and airdrop delivery of equipment, supplies and forces, and the Air Force Reserve’s 315 Airlift Wing are based there.
The base is under the jurisdiction of the Air Force’s 628th Air Base Wing of the Air Mobility Command.
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