Naval ROTC was first established by the National Defence Act of 1926 to offer college students the necessary Naval Science Courses required to qualify them for commissions in the Naval Reserve.

With the passage of the Halloway Plan in 1945, the regular NROTC scholarship program was established to produce well trained and educated junior officers to supplement the output of the US Naval Academy.

In 1979, the NROTC Program was expanded to North Carolina State University from UNC-Chapel Hill through a cross-twon enrollment agreement. The number of midshipmen at NCSU grew so rapidly that the midshipmen at NCSU soon outnumbered the unit at UNC.

In October 1992 the units at UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke University, and NC State University were combined to form the North Carolina Piedmont Region Consortium.

In 1993 the Enlisted and Nuclear Enlisted Commissioning Programs (ECP/NECP) as well as the Marine Enlisted Commissioning Educational Program (MECEP) were established to complement the regular NROTC program.

Today the NCSU NROTC unit inlcudes 1 Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonal, 1 Marine Corps Major, 3 Naval Lieutenants, 1 Marine Gunnery Sergeant, 1 Chief Petty Officer, 1 First Class Petty Officer, and 2 civilian secretaries.

The number of Marines , Officer Candidates, and Midshipmen in the NCSU NROTC battalion now numbers in excess of 140, making it the largest NROTC unit in the NC Piedmont Consortium.