U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City was commissioned on August 15, 1940 with four officers, 52 enlisted men and ten aircraft including three Hall PH-2 seaplanes, four Fairchild J2K landplanes, and three Grumman J2F amphibians. Located sixty miles north of Cape Hatteras, N.C., north of Albemarle Sound and along the east coast's northern most ice-free river, the old Holowell Plantation near Elizabeth City was selected by the Coast Guard in 1938 for its potential strategic value as a seaplane base.

During World War II, the air station was under U. S. Navy control conducting Search and Rescue (SAR), anti-submarine and training missions. Since then the air station's missions and assigned aircraft have shifted and grown with changing national priorities and technologies. In 1966 Air Station Elizabeth City expanded after absorbing the air stations in Bermuda and Argentia, Newfoundland.

In addition to the air station, Elizabeth City's Coast Guard complex includes the Aircraft Repair and Supply Center (AR&SC), Aviation Technical Training Center (ATTC), Support Center and Station Elizabeth City.

Currently, Air Station Elizabeth City, maintaines and operates four C-130 Aircraft and five MH-60J Helicopters. For more on this unit, see [1]