AlaskaAV
GONE WEST
Mission, TX
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When I first went into the Wien Deadhorse operation as station manager, I had 4 guys working for me, 2 young farm kids, one from South Dakota and one from North Dakota and another midwest small town kid, all that I hired myself. Those kids never knew what quitting time was as most farm kids were raised. We worked every flight day and night. Grab an hour or so sleep and back at it. One of the kids did most of the customer service work and one guy that did the maintenance and he was sent to me by our Fairbanks base. All were cross trained of course and all could do any job. I floated where ever I was needed.
Speaking of floating, I even went water skiing in the Beaufort Sea off the Arctic Ocean. Told you I was stupid at times.
When we needed major work done, I called on our Fairbanks base for help. At one point, I had to pull out a generator for routine major overhaul so a crew was sent in from Fairbanks to pull it out and get it ready to fly out on a 737. All worked well but left us with only one power plant. Boy did we baby that one but it was late summer when we did the changeout.
The unit was sent to NC Cat in Anchorage for overhaul. NC Cat is a great company but at times, I wonder just what their employees are like. After they finally got it finished and test run, they sent it back to us at Deadhorse. We offloaded it and moved it to our loading dock inside a heated cargo shed. Well, maybe we left it outside for a few hours but not sure. Finally, the crew came in from Fairbanks to put it on line. Sounds good, right? Wrong. Once they got it in place in the generator shed and hooked up, the good old mechanic type guys cranked it up and water shot out of the water pump. It was determined that NC Cat in Anchorage had sent the unit back full of water instead of antifreeze and the ice cracked the housing on the water pump. Off line it comes and back to Anchorage while we still operated with no backup. I am not sure on this but I suspect that NC Cat sent us a new unit as a replacement since it was getting very close to deep winter and we had to have the backup power. Who knows, maybe the block was cracked also.
After Wien built the new terminal with employee living quarters on the second floor, we rented a room to the NC Cat rep that covered the entire north slope at the time. Boy did we get to him in a joking way of course. Someone, and I really have no idea who, would hit the power distribution room and shut down his room and he would have to go all night with no power. Who, me? Don't know anything about it.
As I have mentioned before, the entire operation was electric powered. In the early days, we only had half of the trailers on line and as we grew, we added another trailer. By the way, the first lady hired on the north slope had her own trailer in a separate area which just happened to be across the hallway from me. I had my neck stuck out on that situation and I wanted to be sure I knew just what was going on because I knew sooner or later, the home office would hear about it and they did.
Often I would go into the generator room in the winter when we were using the most power and look at the cherry red exhaust manifolds and turbo chargers. Talk about hot. The seals on turbo chargers are not supposed to be able to take that much heat. The instruments showed I was running almost 100% overload continuos. NC Cat said it was impossible but when Pan Am lost 22 foot and an engine on a 707-320 out of SFO, Boeing said it was impossible for that aircraft to fly but they forgot to tell the Captain and he set it down at Travis AFB. The engine even landed in a school yard but the kids were in class at the time.
Now back to that generator replacement. Our Fairbanks base sent in a crew to move the engine from cargo to the generator trailer and hook it up and test run it. All looked good they said. At that time, I had a 25,000 gal jet fuel storage tank for fueling and defueling. On all light flights, we would tanker in jet fuel and if necessary, we could buy bulk from ARCO. The arctic diesel fuel available from ARCO was tested the same as Jet A-50 except for a little more sulfur but certified OK by P&W, Boeing and the FAA. Once all hooked up, I checked every trailer unit out as well as our fueling unit. I powered it up and it operated OK but one thing I overlooked was to check the rotation of the 3 phase motor that powered the pump.
On the first flight in after that unit was on line while the crew from Fairbanks was still there, we had a 737 flight inbound and they would need fuel. The single point fuel hose was in place and the pump was activated. The third officer (at that time, Wien was running 3 in the cockpit) noticed the fuel on board was going down and we shut down the system. We played around with it and the work crew from Fairbanks worked with it but no joy. Finally, the Captain sharpened his pencil and figured he had sufficient fuel on board to meet fuel requirements for Fairbanks.
Once the pressure was off and the flight and mechanical crew was gone, I dug into it. Since I had been building radios since I was some 7 years old, having built and completely wired two of the homes I built, passed my exam as a ham radio operator, I had some knowledge of electricity. The key was the 3 phase electric motor on the fuel pump. When the crew hooked the wires back up to the generator, they reversed two wires which made the pump run backwards so instead of fueling, it was defueling. I simply reversed two wires and it worked perfect. The "rest of the story" follows.
Now comes the fun part of "running my own airline on the north slope" as I was often accused of doing at times. My boss sent a very nasty letter to me about not being intelligent enough to know if a pump will run or not and that he was concerned about my capability as a station manager. With a big grin as I wrote it, I replied with a 5 page letter to him with a copy to his boss and another to the owner of the airline about how stupid he was to think I had anything to do with installing the generator incorrect listing exactly what went on. Know what? He never bothered me after that for a long time. Often wondered what his boss, a VP, said to him. The maintenance foreman in Fairbanks was no longer a friend of course since he was involved. The head guy for ARCO and BP just laughed about it when I told them what had happened.
At one point not long after that, we had a forklift that had a brake problem. No parking break at all and very little normal brakes. I had complained time after time about it but he would not send anyone up to repair it and we had to have the machine for 737 turnarounds. Finally one day, an employee, who was used to the brake problems, pulled up to the rear baggage door with a pallet holding a huge, collapsed, 250 pound rubber tire for a rolligan (special machine used to travel over the tundra under all conditions) parked it and jumped in the rear compartment and started pulling the tire inside by himself. Somehow, he pulled hard enough that a fork on the forklift penetrated the side of the fuselage and left a hole maybe 2" diameter. He finished his work and told me about it. I got the flight crew to come down and look at it and since it was only skin damage with no support damage, it was decided that the flight would return to Anchorage unpressurized below 12,000 foot. We all know what 100 mph tape is but that day, it went to 500 mph tape.
Of course, my boss wanted to fire me again for letting the situation get to that point.
I immediately sent him copies of all the memos and letters I had sent to maintenance about getting the machine fixed and that I knew for a fact there were 3 sets of brake linings sitting in Fairbanks but they would not send a mechanic to repair the machine so I had no choice other than shutting down our Deadhorse operation completely.
Guess what? Next day, there were three mechanics with all parts on site to repair the machine and I never heard another word from my boss. By the way, did I mention he got fired not long after that?
Not long after that, the forklift went down again and we were dead in the water so to speak. My only choice was to rent a forklift with operator from an oil support company, Mukluk Freight Lines. I kept trying to convince Wien management that unless they repaired our forklift and get it back on line, it would be much cheaper to buy a new or used one. Fairbanks and Anchorage maintenance would not consider it. Guess what? According to my records, we paid Mukluk over a half million dollars in one year to rent their machine. A new machine would have cost less than $60,000. I often wondered who got the kickback. Again, I suspect several VPs figured since I was running my own airline at Prudhoe Bay, it was my own problem. But than again, the person that authorized the rental flew to and from work in his own Bell helicopter.
In most areas of the Arctic, the permafrost (ground frozen constantly for 2 consecutive years and usually ice rich but not always) went to a depth of 1000 foot. Needless to say, that precluded any water wells so snow melt from small lakes were used as well as water from the Sag and Coleville Rivers. Sewer systems really became a problem from the start. Above ground tanks were set up where all discharge was emptied into. I like to call them bugs, but a bacteria was introduced to expedite braking down the solids. Upon completion of the treatment, the fluid outflow was tested more pure than the water we drank. An unbelievable operation. When the bugs were working, the tank would get so hot a person couldn't hold their hand on the side. Just don't use Tide powdered soap.
When Wien built their new terminal and employee quarters at Deadhorse, they set the sewer system up with two outflows, one gray water which came from the kitchen, showers, etc., and black water which contained the outflow from the stools. Since the Wien operation was not all that big, we elected not to get into the sewer system as described above but instead, we built up special black water holding tanks attached to pallets capable of being transported by our 737s from Deadhorse to Fairbanks. Special connectors were used so there was no chance they could leak in flight. Passengers never knew when these tanks were on board. What Wien didn't go through to serve the oil patch on the north slope. It really took a special kind of employee to put up with the conditions and I was so very lucky to find them.
As in almost all places, we had our drug problems with company employees. As I recall, we had 54 employees on station at any given time working a schedule of 2 weeks on and one week off. Living quarters were dorm type, except for management, but not coed (most of the time anyway but who checked?). I suppose the pot problem started out real slow and of course living as close as we all did, the odor always indicated what room however we always respected employee privacy up to a point. Many memos were posted and group training classes impressed the crew that the company would not tolerate drugs at any time. None of this involved flight crews tough.
Finally, it got so bad someone (wonder who) went to the state troopers and asked for help. It was decided that a trooper would be hired as an employee to work and live with our crew. Only one person knew anything about it and the trooper was treated like any other. As I recall, even our home office wasn't even told until the last couple of days.
Finally, the trooper decided the day had come. It was set up that a work crew from Anchorage was on standby to catch a flight on minutes notice to fly to Prudhoe Bay. The trooper busted 23 employees who were sent out on the next flight an hour later, the one that the crew from Anchorage was on inbound. After that, the local state trooper was invited to come over for coffee anytime in the community dining room, with his dog of course. At no time did we have a problem like that again. I suspect many went to white powder though. If there is a will, there will be a way I guess.
In the early days after BP moved in their new headquarters, the entire Wien crew, women and men, were invited over to dinner at any time on the house. Charlie Wark, head of BP operations on the slope and a very good friend, and I agreed that the better the relationship BP and Wien had, the better the service. BP also had a swimming pool in the place and we were invited to use it at any time. Needless to say, that went over real good with the gals. Sunday night was always steak and lobster for those that went over. I even let the crew use my company truck to get there and back if they didn't find a ride elsewhere
I tried out another procedure on the slope. On Saturday nights after the last flight, I would invite top management of one or possibly two different companies to come over for happy hour. This was unusual really since the entire north slope was supposed to be dry as well as the Wien terminal and crew quarters. When I explained to ARCO and BP management what I wanted to try, they immediately went for it. The idea was to get my senior managers and agents together with the oil company managers to talk about any problems they might be having with Wien and to work them out one on one away from work. Talk about a great relationship between an airline and customer.....That went on every week for over a year. Needless to say, I couldn't turn this in on expanse account so all the booze costs came out of my pocket but I did find a way that the company paid for the special snacks that our cook prepared. Remember, I was accused of running my own airline at Prudhoe Bay.
My employees told me right from the start how much easier it was to get their work done.
The oil companies were on edge when we started bringing in female employees. I must say I have never seem such a tremendous group of women do such a good job and enjoy it so much. I suspect when I told the top oil company managers that it would work, they backed off. One example was when I arranged to have the first woman to actually operate the controls of a Brinkerhoff Drilling drill rig drilling some 22,500 foot underground. I doubt if she really understood what that day meant to her and other women. She flew to the drill site on a Bell Jet Ranger (donated) from our terminal. After leaving the drill site, we flew all over the area. Once that tour was over, she boarded her personal charter, a Merlin turbo, back to Fairbanks. Since she was the only passenger, she asked if I would like to accompany her. Who, me decline an invitation to ride a charter with a beautiful lady? Gee, guys, I ain't stupid. Anyway, on final into Fairbanks, I noticed smoke coming out of the air vents and the flight crew was really looking around. Finally the lady noticed too and got a little upset but there I sat, looking calm as posable. Great fake I guess. Finally, just before touchdown, they shut the right engine down. At that point, I wondered how they could even see out front. It was determined later that an oil seal failed which let oil get into the air system. Anyway, no problems.
I got a very nice letter from the CEO and President of Braniff thanking me for taking such good care of the lady, a very special friend of his. I caught our first flight back to Prudhoe Bay. Story of my life. By the way, after that, all of my employees had free passes system wide on Braniff at any time they wanted them without going through our pass department. It was rumored that I ran my own pass department for my station. Even at times, management in Anchorage would e-mail me asking for help in getting passes for their families. Being nice does pay off I guess. Same was true with Art Kelly, president of Western Airlines and Bob Six, president of Continental airlines.
Just after I was transferred to the Wien Deadhorse operation as station manager, Halliburton (Dick Chaney was not there at the time) would invite the entire Wien crew (big deal, 4 employees at the time) over on Saturday night for a steak dinner and to watch a movie. I would always leave one employee to watch after the generator and station and would rotate it from week to week and I pulled my night also. Everyone looked forward to being around the great guys of Halliburton. Lots of games, a good movie and huge T-bone steaks. Cloud nine for sure. Who ever watches a movie without popcorn and there was lots of hot popcorn?
http://www.alaska.faa.gov/fai/images/ARCSLP/SCC-b.jpg
http://www.alaska.faa.gov/fai/images/ARCSLP/SCC-ramp.jpg
When I first went into the Wien Deadhorse operation as station manager, I had 4 guys working for me, 2 young farm kids, one from South Dakota and one from North Dakota and another midwest small town kid, all that I hired myself. Those kids never knew what quitting time was as most farm kids were raised. We worked every flight day and night. Grab an hour or so sleep and back at it. One of the kids did most of the customer service work and one guy that did the maintenance and he was sent to me by our Fairbanks base. All were cross trained of course and all could do any job. I floated where ever I was needed.
Speaking of floating, I even went water skiing in the Beaufort Sea off the Arctic Ocean. Told you I was stupid at times.
When we needed major work done, I called on our Fairbanks base for help. At one point, I had to pull out a generator for routine major overhaul so a crew was sent in from Fairbanks to pull it out and get it ready to fly out on a 737. All worked well but left us with only one power plant. Boy did we baby that one but it was late summer when we did the changeout.
The unit was sent to NC Cat in Anchorage for overhaul. NC Cat is a great company but at times, I wonder just what their employees are like. After they finally got it finished and test run, they sent it back to us at Deadhorse. We offloaded it and moved it to our loading dock inside a heated cargo shed. Well, maybe we left it outside for a few hours but not sure. Finally, the crew came in from Fairbanks to put it on line. Sounds good, right? Wrong. Once they got it in place in the generator shed and hooked up, the good old mechanic type guys cranked it up and water shot out of the water pump. It was determined that NC Cat in Anchorage had sent the unit back full of water instead of antifreeze and the ice cracked the housing on the water pump. Off line it comes and back to Anchorage while we still operated with no backup. I am not sure on this but I suspect that NC Cat sent us a new unit as a replacement since it was getting very close to deep winter and we had to have the backup power. Who knows, maybe the block was cracked also.
After Wien built the new terminal with employee living quarters on the second floor, we rented a room to the NC Cat rep that covered the entire north slope at the time. Boy did we get to him in a joking way of course. Someone, and I really have no idea who, would hit the power distribution room and shut down his room and he would have to go all night with no power. Who, me? Don't know anything about it.
As I have mentioned before, the entire operation was electric powered. In the early days, we only had half of the trailers on line and as we grew, we added another trailer. By the way, the first lady hired on the north slope had her own trailer in a separate area which just happened to be across the hallway from me. I had my neck stuck out on that situation and I wanted to be sure I knew just what was going on because I knew sooner or later, the home office would hear about it and they did.
Often I would go into the generator room in the winter when we were using the most power and look at the cherry red exhaust manifolds and turbo chargers. Talk about hot. The seals on turbo chargers are not supposed to be able to take that much heat. The instruments showed I was running almost 100% overload continuos. NC Cat said it was impossible but when Pan Am lost 22 foot and an engine on a 707-320 out of SFO, Boeing said it was impossible for that aircraft to fly but they forgot to tell the Captain and he set it down at Travis AFB. The engine even landed in a school yard but the kids were in class at the time.
Now back to that generator replacement. Our Fairbanks base sent in a crew to move the engine from cargo to the generator trailer and hook it up and test run it. All looked good they said. At that time, I had a 25,000 gal jet fuel storage tank for fueling and defueling. On all light flights, we would tanker in jet fuel and if necessary, we could buy bulk from ARCO. The arctic diesel fuel available from ARCO was tested the same as Jet A-50 except for a little more sulfur but certified OK by P&W, Boeing and the FAA. Once all hooked up, I checked every trailer unit out as well as our fueling unit. I powered it up and it operated OK but one thing I overlooked was to check the rotation of the 3 phase motor that powered the pump.
On the first flight in after that unit was on line while the crew from Fairbanks was still there, we had a 737 flight inbound and they would need fuel. The single point fuel hose was in place and the pump was activated. The third officer (at that time, Wien was running 3 in the cockpit) noticed the fuel on board was going down and we shut down the system. We played around with it and the work crew from Fairbanks worked with it but no joy. Finally, the Captain sharpened his pencil and figured he had sufficient fuel on board to meet fuel requirements for Fairbanks.
Once the pressure was off and the flight and mechanical crew was gone, I dug into it. Since I had been building radios since I was some 7 years old, having built and completely wired two of the homes I built, passed my exam as a ham radio operator, I had some knowledge of electricity. The key was the 3 phase electric motor on the fuel pump. When the crew hooked the wires back up to the generator, they reversed two wires which made the pump run backwards so instead of fueling, it was defueling. I simply reversed two wires and it worked perfect. The "rest of the story" follows.
Now comes the fun part of "running my own airline on the north slope" as I was often accused of doing at times. My boss sent a very nasty letter to me about not being intelligent enough to know if a pump will run or not and that he was concerned about my capability as a station manager. With a big grin as I wrote it, I replied with a 5 page letter to him with a copy to his boss and another to the owner of the airline about how stupid he was to think I had anything to do with installing the generator incorrect listing exactly what went on. Know what? He never bothered me after that for a long time. Often wondered what his boss, a VP, said to him. The maintenance foreman in Fairbanks was no longer a friend of course since he was involved. The head guy for ARCO and BP just laughed about it when I told them what had happened.
At one point not long after that, we had a forklift that had a brake problem. No parking break at all and very little normal brakes. I had complained time after time about it but he would not send anyone up to repair it and we had to have the machine for 737 turnarounds. Finally one day, an employee, who was used to the brake problems, pulled up to the rear baggage door with a pallet holding a huge, collapsed, 250 pound rubber tire for a rolligan (special machine used to travel over the tundra under all conditions) parked it and jumped in the rear compartment and started pulling the tire inside by himself. Somehow, he pulled hard enough that a fork on the forklift penetrated the side of the fuselage and left a hole maybe 2" diameter. He finished his work and told me about it. I got the flight crew to come down and look at it and since it was only skin damage with no support damage, it was decided that the flight would return to Anchorage unpressurized below 12,000 foot. We all know what 100 mph tape is but that day, it went to 500 mph tape.
Of course, my boss wanted to fire me again for letting the situation get to that point.
I immediately sent him copies of all the memos and letters I had sent to maintenance about getting the machine fixed and that I knew for a fact there were 3 sets of brake linings sitting in Fairbanks but they would not send a mechanic to repair the machine so I had no choice other than shutting down our Deadhorse operation completely.
Guess what? Next day, there were three mechanics with all parts on site to repair the machine and I never heard another word from my boss. By the way, did I mention he got fired not long after that?
Not long after that, the forklift went down again and we were dead in the water so to speak. My only choice was to rent a forklift with operator from an oil support company, Mukluk Freight Lines. I kept trying to convince Wien management that unless they repaired our forklift and get it back on line, it would be much cheaper to buy a new or used one. Fairbanks and Anchorage maintenance would not consider it. Guess what? According to my records, we paid Mukluk over a half million dollars in one year to rent their machine. A new machine would have cost less than $60,000. I often wondered who got the kickback. Again, I suspect several VPs figured since I was running my own airline at Prudhoe Bay, it was my own problem. But than again, the person that authorized the rental flew to and from work in his own Bell helicopter.
In most areas of the Arctic, the permafrost (ground frozen constantly for 2 consecutive years and usually ice rich but not always) went to a depth of 1000 foot. Needless to say, that precluded any water wells so snow melt from small lakes were used as well as water from the Sag and Coleville Rivers. Sewer systems really became a problem from the start. Above ground tanks were set up where all discharge was emptied into. I like to call them bugs, but a bacteria was introduced to expedite braking down the solids. Upon completion of the treatment, the fluid outflow was tested more pure than the water we drank. An unbelievable operation. When the bugs were working, the tank would get so hot a person couldn't hold their hand on the side. Just don't use Tide powdered soap.
When Wien built their new terminal and employee quarters at Deadhorse, they set the sewer system up with two outflows, one gray water which came from the kitchen, showers, etc., and black water which contained the outflow from the stools. Since the Wien operation was not all that big, we elected not to get into the sewer system as described above but instead, we built up special black water holding tanks attached to pallets capable of being transported by our 737s from Deadhorse to Fairbanks. Special connectors were used so there was no chance they could leak in flight. Passengers never knew when these tanks were on board. What Wien didn't go through to serve the oil patch on the north slope. It really took a special kind of employee to put up with the conditions and I was so very lucky to find them.
As in almost all places, we had our drug problems with company employees. As I recall, we had 54 employees on station at any given time working a schedule of 2 weeks on and one week off. Living quarters were dorm type, except for management, but not coed (most of the time anyway but who checked?). I suppose the pot problem started out real slow and of course living as close as we all did, the odor always indicated what room however we always respected employee privacy up to a point. Many memos were posted and group training classes impressed the crew that the company would not tolerate drugs at any time. None of this involved flight crews tough.
Finally, it got so bad someone (wonder who) went to the state troopers and asked for help. It was decided that a trooper would be hired as an employee to work and live with our crew. Only one person knew anything about it and the trooper was treated like any other. As I recall, even our home office wasn't even told until the last couple of days.
Finally, the trooper decided the day had come. It was set up that a work crew from Anchorage was on standby to catch a flight on minutes notice to fly to Prudhoe Bay. The trooper busted 23 employees who were sent out on the next flight an hour later, the one that the crew from Anchorage was on inbound. After that, the local state trooper was invited to come over for coffee anytime in the community dining room, with his dog of course. At no time did we have a problem like that again. I suspect many went to white powder though. If there is a will, there will be a way I guess.
In the early days after BP moved in their new headquarters, the entire Wien crew, women and men, were invited over to dinner at any time on the house. Charlie Wark, head of BP operations on the slope and a very good friend, and I agreed that the better the relationship BP and Wien had, the better the service. BP also had a swimming pool in the place and we were invited to use it at any time. Needless to say, that went over real good with the gals. Sunday night was always steak and lobster for those that went over. I even let the crew use my company truck to get there and back if they didn't find a ride elsewhere
I tried out another procedure on the slope. On Saturday nights after the last flight, I would invite top management of one or possibly two different companies to come over for happy hour. This was unusual really since the entire north slope was supposed to be dry as well as the Wien terminal and crew quarters. When I explained to ARCO and BP management what I wanted to try, they immediately went for it. The idea was to get my senior managers and agents together with the oil company managers to talk about any problems they might be having with Wien and to work them out one on one away from work. Talk about a great relationship between an airline and customer.....That went on every week for over a year. Needless to say, I couldn't turn this in on expanse account so all the booze costs came out of my pocket but I did find a way that the company paid for the special snacks that our cook prepared. Remember, I was accused of running my own airline at Prudhoe Bay.
My employees told me right from the start how much easier it was to get their work done.
The oil companies were on edge when we started bringing in female employees. I must say I have never seem such a tremendous group of women do such a good job and enjoy it so much. I suspect when I told the top oil company managers that it would work, they backed off. One example was when I arranged to have the first woman to actually operate the controls of a Brinkerhoff Drilling drill rig drilling some 22,500 foot underground. I doubt if she really understood what that day meant to her and other women. She flew to the drill site on a Bell Jet Ranger (donated) from our terminal. After leaving the drill site, we flew all over the area. Once that tour was over, she boarded her personal charter, a Merlin turbo, back to Fairbanks. Since she was the only passenger, she asked if I would like to accompany her. Who, me decline an invitation to ride a charter with a beautiful lady? Gee, guys, I ain't stupid. Anyway, on final into Fairbanks, I noticed smoke coming out of the air vents and the flight crew was really looking around. Finally the lady noticed too and got a little upset but there I sat, looking calm as posable. Great fake I guess. Finally, just before touchdown, they shut the right engine down. At that point, I wondered how they could even see out front. It was determined later that an oil seal failed which let oil get into the air system. Anyway, no problems.
I got a very nice letter from the CEO and President of Braniff thanking me for taking such good care of the lady, a very special friend of his. I caught our first flight back to Prudhoe Bay. Story of my life. By the way, after that, all of my employees had free passes system wide on Braniff at any time they wanted them without going through our pass department. It was rumored that I ran my own pass department for my station. Even at times, management in Anchorage would e-mail me asking for help in getting passes for their families. Being nice does pay off I guess. Same was true with Art Kelly, president of Western Airlines and Bob Six, president of Continental airlines.
Just after I was transferred to the Wien Deadhorse operation as station manager, Halliburton (Dick Chaney was not there at the time) would invite the entire Wien crew (big deal, 4 employees at the time) over on Saturday night for a steak dinner and to watch a movie. I would always leave one employee to watch after the generator and station and would rotate it from week to week and I pulled my night also. Everyone looked forward to being around the great guys of Halliburton. Lots of games, a good movie and huge T-bone steaks. Cloud nine for sure. Who ever watches a movie without popcorn and there was lots of hot popcorn?
