WHEREAS, the Seminole name denotes to all people the qualities of honor, courage and pride and is epitomized by the quality of perseverence against all odds, and WHEREAS, the Seminole Tribe appreciates the service rendered our nation by personnel at the 6th USASA Field Station. NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED: That the 6th USASA Field Station be permitted to use the Seminole name . . . and be known as the 6th SEMINOLE U.S. Army Security Agency Field Station.

The resolution was unanimously approved by the five-member Seminole Tribal Council and signed by the chairman, Chief Billy Osceola. On the tenth day of June 1964, the name "Seminole" was added to the Army Security Agency's Field Station at Homestead, Florida, and from that time on the installation has been popularly known as "Seminole Station."

During the more than four years of Seminole Station's existence, the officers and enlisted men - today under the command of LTC Warren H. Ellis - have demonstrated by their work that the adopted name is well deserved.

In tribal lore the name "Seminole" stands for a set of values which virtually amount to a precis of our own Bill of Rights. "Seminole" symbolizes full personal freedom and expression within the law, brotherhood among all men, the right of every man to take his own place in society and make his own decisions and, with these freedoms, the responsibility to defend his society from injurious outside influences.

Coincidentally, the name seems to embody those beliefs the USASA men at Seminole Station are engaged in defending.

This Agency field station on the edge of the Florida Everglades finds itself in an environment of dramatic contrasts.

On one hand are the Seminole - a proud band of American Indians, who have retained much of their tribal culture and heritage as sonic booms exploded over their heads. One the other hand, is the diverse vacationland of Southern Florida enveloping a wide radius around its center, Miami Beach.

In addition to its surroundings, Seminole Station is made even more unique by means of a curious set of host-tenant relationships which, at first glance, appear hopelessly confusing.

First, USASA Field Station Homestead, or Seminole Station, is not located on Homestead Air Force Base; it is situated fifteen miles south of the base on Navy Site Alpha (part of the Naval Security Group) and is dependent upon the Navy activity for operational support. Navy Site Alpha, in turn, is a tenant to Homestead Air Force Base.

Administrative, medical, housing, and transportation support is provided directly by the air base while another base tenant - the Third U.S. Army Support Group (AD) - takes care of the Field Station's finance and depot maintenance.

There is one detachment of Seminole Station in fact, that is not a tenant to any U.S. Armed Service but, instead, to a civilian corporation! This detachment is supported by the USAF Eastern Test Range at Patrick AFB where the Air Force's interests are contracted to Pan-American Airlines, in reality making the detachment a tenant to Pan-Am.

Headquarters Company of Seminole Station is actually at Homestead AFB, 25 miles south of Miami. Most of the single enlisted men and first and second lieutenants live on the base.

For the married men, there is modern on-base housing as well as plentiful off-base housing available.

As part of the Homestead AFB community, USASA people enjoy the full program of recreational, social, and religious activites their Air Force host offers at this modern base.

The Homestead area's semi-tropical latitude encourages year-round recreation with the emphasis, naturally on the outdoors - particularly the Atlantic Ocean. Biscayne Bay is only a few miles from Homestead AFB and is a favorite spot for sunbathing, water skiing, and deep-sea fishing.

Miami, with its impressive new skyline, and the night lights of Miami Beach, are a scenic one-hour drive up the coast.

Seminole Station is, by most accounts, one of the more agreeable duty stations in or out of the Agency. And despite, or perhaps because of, the intertwined host-tenant agreements, the men of Seminole Station consistently produce results of an exemplary standard in their contribution of USASA's mission.

With this in mind it becomes clear that Seminole Station has more than a tenuous relationship in geography and nomenclature to the Seminole who first inhabited the region.

The connection goes much deeper. The Seminole often had to endure extreme hardship in their long struggle to preserve the identity and integrity of their homeland and beliefs. They were ever vigilant against enfringements upon their lands and they fought bitterly to defend what they felt was rightfully theirs.

Seminole Station is not, of course, a combat unit and by no means do the men there undergo the same kind of difficulties a combat unit does; but, like the Seminole, they have a constant vigil - a round-the -clock responsibility to preserve the freedoms and beliefs of the United States.

The philosophy of the Seminole and our naton - as exemplified by Seminole Station - is so strikingly analogous that an official Seminole Station emblem, made up of Indian symbols was developed. With the help of the Seminole, a diamond-shaped emblem comprised of four lesser diamonds representing the common meeting ground between the two communities was designed.

The chief's headdress signifies allegiance to the chief, or the Commander-in-Chief, in untiring and expert support of the national effort.

To the Seminole, the dugout canoe symbolized survival, as the vehicle for hunting, travel, and adventure. To those in the Agency it reflects the world-wide disbursement of the units within the Command. (The canoe is not, as some resident wags have it, a reflection of Seminole Station's working conditions during its formative years.)

The fire burning before the hut, or Chickee, in the next symbol, is an ancient symbol of warmth and hospitality - qualities much in evidence at Seminole Station and in the Seminole Indian community. The huts of the Indians and the buildings of the field station, of necessity, had to be sturdy to withstand the buffeting administered by an occasional hurricane.

The fourth symbol and the foundation of the whole diamond depicts the most important item of the Seminole warrior's equipment, the silver breast plates. This piece of armor indicates that a nation or society must basically be military strong, for only upon this foundation can skilled leaders and technicians emerge to carry out demanding assignments.

In symbol and fact, the kinship between the Seminole and the USASA field station using the tribe's name, is strong and binding.

The men of USASA Field Station Homestead - Seminole Station - are writing their own history, and it is an exciting story.