Commander Jim Spotts in Haiti
Jim and Bekki Spotts have been members of our church for about two years now. Both Jim and Bekki are graduates of the United States Coast Guard Academy, and Jim is currently serving as commanding officer of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Tahoma. Right now, Jim and the crew of the Tahoma are engaged in life-saving relief efforts in Haiti. On Friday, January 15 a feature article appeared in the Washington Post detailing the work that Jim is heading up in Haiti.
According to the article, “At first 10 children came, then 20, then 50. Finally, more than 100 young earthquake victims crowded into the clinic, where crew members of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Tahoma were delivering desperately needed medical supplies and assistance late into the night.
“It was one of those days where we didn’t keep count. We treated a bunch of kids. We saved a lot of lives,” said Cmdr. Jim Spotts, commanding officer of the Tahoma, weary but still working with his crew at 9:15 p.m. But, he added, “a lot of older people had to wait.”
According to the article, Jim “brings his own expertise on Haiti. A former Coast Guard intelligence manager who has worked both the northeast and southeast marine borders near Canada and the Caribbean, Spotts from July 2008 until last May served as military liaison to Haiti at the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince — contributing to largest previous relief operations in the region, after four hurricanes smashed Haiti in 2008.
Tuesday’s earthquake, Spotts said, left his former colleagues reeling. At Haiti’s century-old former Admiral Killick naval base, now a Coast Guard station that houses a Sri Lankan battalion and a Uruguayan maritime police unit that are part of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, “only two or three structures” are left standing. It’s been hard,” Spotts said. “Obviously we need medical supplies . . . then food and water, and essentially the rebuilding of the entire city of Port-au-Prince,” Spotts said.”
For more information and an interview with Commander Spotts, you can visit the WMUR TV 9 website.
Please pray for Jim and Bekki, their children Meredith and Ben, and for the crew of the Tahoma and the people of Haiti in these very difficult days.
