Port Director Bill Masters presents a plaque in the shape of the State of Texas to Walter Spieker, second from left, in the office of the German Armed Forces Command in Washington, D.C. Also pictured are LTC Reinhart Benke, left, and LCDR Rolf Guenther, right, of the German Armed Forces Command, Traffic and Transportation Division. Spieker is president of Trans-Atlantic Agencies, Inc. of Baltimore, general agent in the United States and Canada for the German Armed Forces Sea Transport Command. The inscription on the plaque reads: "Presented to Walter Spieker, Trans-Atlantic Agencies, Inc., for your friendship and support of the Port of Beaumont." For several years, the port has handled transportation of equipment for the German Armed Forces Command in support of Operation Roving Sands, a large multi-national desert military exercise.