The former Birmingham-Southern College campus in Alabama will become a new U.S. Coast Guard training facility, the Department of Homeland Security announced Wednesday. The financially struggling college closed in May 2024. The Coast Guard says it plans to begin using the facilities later this year. (Birmingham-Southern College handout)
The Department of Homeland Security announced Wednesday that it planned to purchase the 1926-acre campus of the former Birmingham-Southern College to use as a Coast Guard new training center.
“We must invest in our most valuable treasure — our people — to meet the increasingly complex maritime security challenges facing the nation,” said Adm. Kevin E. Lunday, the commandant of the Coast Guard.
No sale price was announced. The 168-year-old college closed in May 2024 and has been vacant since.
Alabama A&M had previously offered $52 million for the campus in a deal that did not advance to a sale, according to the college.
The Coast Guard hopes to begin using the campus later this year.
The Coast Guard’s only enlisted basic training is held at the Coast Guard Training Center in Cape May, N.J. Prospective officers attend the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement Wednesday that a second recruit training facility was needed because the Coast Guard has reached 110% of its recruiting goal and is planning to add 15,000 new service members by 2028.
“This next generation of heroes deserves training centers and support facilities worthy of their mission, and that is exactly what they are going to have in Alabama,” Noem said.
Coast Guard recruits undergo an eight-week basic training program similar to that of the other services. They are given a copy of “The Helmsman,” which the Coast Guard calls “a guide to boot camp.” New arrivals receive an orientation, uniforms, an entrance fitness test, and they meet commanders and instructors.
Recruits are taught the regulations, traditions and history of the Coast Guard. Instruction also includes classroom work on firearms, seamanship, firefighting, damage control and first aid.
About halfway through training, recruits state their preferences for available assignments, locations, and unit types. First assignment orders are sent out to recruits near the end of basic training. Nearly all recruits start as an unspecialized seaman or fireman. Later, Coast Guard members can put in for specialized training to serve on cutters, helicopters, icebreakers and other jobs that require additional training.
In November 2025, the Coast Guard issued a “request for information” for a new training facility that would include accommodations for 1,200 recruits, a 400-person dining facility, a 500-person auditorium, a medical center for 1,000 personnel, plus office space, a gymnasium, a pool and classrooms.
In its announcement Wednesday, the Coast Guard said the Birmingham-Southern campus best satisfied its requirements, offering “turnkey-ready facilities critical to support immediate commencement of the training mission.”
U.S. Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., said the campus would help the Coast Guard “recruit service members to combat 21st century threats.”
The Coast Guard said the new Alabama training center is part of the service’s Force Design 2028, a blueprint that will “transform the Coast Guard into a more agile, capable and responsive fighting force.”
