Secret CIA covert operations and intelligence gathering site associated with the University of Miami from 1961 to 1968. It was also known as the “Miami Station” or “WAVE station”.

It was set up to provide support for Operation Mongoose to overthrow Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. It also provided a base for preparing the Bay of Pigs invasion. Cuban exiles were trained in commando tactics, espionage and seaman ship for multiple raid on the Cuban island.

During the Cuban Missile Crisis there were as many as three to four hundred operatives on the base and some in Cuba. JMWAVE was the largest CIA installation outside of Langley. It was one of the larger employers in the Miami area.

Secret covert operations and intelligence gathering site associated with the University of Miami from 1961 to 1968

Publicly the facility went by the name “Zenith Technical Enterprises” until a June 1964 article in LOOK magazine identified it as a CIA operation. Of course there were the usual denials. The University of Miami president claimed no knowledge of the activities and the corporate name was changed to the “Melmer Corporation”.

Although the facility provided and economic boom to South Florida it was becoming too visible and was replaced by a smaller station in Miami Beach.