The Turks and Caicos Islands marked the 25th anniversary of the U.S. tracking station on Grand Turk Island with a series of 6 stamps issued on June 20, 1977.

Grand Turk Island which is the capitol of the Turks and Caicos group is located in the sunny Caribbean off the north-east coast of Haiti. One usually thinks of any Caribbean island as lush and tropical with coconut palms gracing the shoreline and natives frolicking along its beaches, however these islands situated between the Bahamas and the island of Hispanola were overlooked by Mother Nature in receiving outdoor beauty and a life of ease for its people. Grand Turk is a small flat scrubby looking stretch of land that covers only 12 square miles and one has to search hard for the few trees of any significance that have survived the exposure to the harsh elements of the environment. It's an island whose major source of income once was producing a product from the two of the things in abundance there -- the scorching sun and the ocean deep -- rock salt.

In the early years of the space program Grand Turks importance was not in what nature could provide but what man had installed on its surface in making it a major missile and space tracking station. Grand Turk as a tracking station had its beginning on June 15, 1951 when the Jamaican Agreement was reached by Great Britain and the United States of America for construction and operation of the Grand Turk Auxiliary Air Force Base. However the signing of the station agreement was delayed until January 15, 1952 and this date is probably considered the official date which the Turks and Caicos government used for its issuing these 25th anniversary stamps in 1977.

Construction of the major facilities was completed by August 1953 and was declared operationally ready to support a missile test on August 22, 1955 after installation of its radar, telemetry, missile command and control equipment and other station electronic support equipment was cheked out. Finally on November 26, 1955 the station supported its first missile test by tracking a Snark, the first missile to fly with a stellar guidance system and the first to travel the distance of over 700 miles down the Atlantic Missile Test Range to Grand Turk.

Stations stretching from Cape Canaveral Florida to the Indian Ocean made up the Atlantic Missile Test Range which was once dubbed the largest shooting gallery in the world. Its official title is the Air Force Eastern Test Range (AFETR). Grand Turk was #7 in this chain of range tracking stations and although it as well as the other stations were once called auxiliary air force bases and later auxiliary air fields the only connection they had with the U.S. Air Force is that they were under their jurisdiction. Each had a United States Air Force base commander who was usually the only military man assigned to any station. The major work-force was U.S. civilians working for private companies who had contracts with the U.S. Air Force to maintain and operate the tracking and housekeeping duties.