Commander Aceion C Prescott

Commander (Cdr) Aceion C Prescott is a native of rural St. Catherine where a childhood of outdoor activities helped to prepare him for a career in the JDF. He had a love of public speaking that was honed from church activities, National Secondary School Debate Competition, and the Optimist Oratorical Competition. This assisted the son of a JDF Ex-Corporal to join the JDF as a commissioned officer.   He read for a degree in Zoology and Botany at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona Campus before attesting into the JDF in September 2002.

Cdr Prescott completed basic infantry training in Newcastle, St. Andrew in December 2002. He then spent six months at the Coast Guard before his initial officer training in the UK at the Britannia Royal Naval College. The highlight of that training was six weeks working onboard the British Royal Navy’s Type 22 Frigate, HMS CAMBELLTOWN, as part of the Standing Naval Forces for the Atlantic (STANAVFORLANT) in the Mediterranean.   In June 2018 he graduated from the US Naval War College as one of the first batch of international students to receive a master’s degree from that institution.  He is a qualified Ship Captain and last commanded the forty-two (42) metres Offshore Patrol Vessel, HMJS Middlesex.

He has held several appointments in his eighteen (18) years at the JDF Coast Guard to include training officer, officer commanding (OC) Shore Base, Operations Officer, and Executive Officer (XO). He has completed several courses in the US and UK to include International Maritime Officer’s Course (IMOC), Boarding Officer Instructor course, Exclusive Economic Zone course, and Chemical Biological Radiological Nuclear Awareness course.  He has travelled the region to attend several workshops and seminars on International Maritime Organization and security matters.  In November 2010 he led the JDF contingent to the trilateral operations meeting with the UK and Cuba on the historic occasion of the first visit of a British warship to Cuba in decades. Cdr Prescott has been involved at various levels with the US led annual regional training exercise: Exercise Tradewinds for over twelve (12) years. In 2015-2016 he was the joint maritime planner for phase two of Exercise Tradewinds in Jamaica.

Over the period August 2018 to July 2020 he was the acting Commanding Officer of the 1^st District JDF Coast Guard. With a focus on operational outcomes he saw the Unit seizing over sixty-three thousand pounds of marijuana, approximately two thousand six hundred and thirty pounds of cocaine, and two hundred twenty-five lives saved in search and rescue missions. A great believer in the importance of partnership, he was integral to the development of a MOU between the JDF, Maritime Authority of Jamaica and the National Land Agency to facilitate the receipt and use of hydrographic survey equipment from the UK Hydrographic Office.

His interests are environmental protection, oceanography, reading, playing volleyball and practical shooting. He is married and has a daughter.