Interviewer(s): E. Bernier. Houma, LA

Affiliation: University of Arizona

We met Herb Barrett when Diane, Tom, and I attended a breakfast meeting of the Halliburton retiree's club in Houma. Herb was born in Duncan, Oklahoma in 1928. He graduated from high school in 1946 and went to the University of Oklahoma to study petroleum engineering. He left after two years to take a job with Halliburton working in the machine shop and as a cement truck driver. He was transferred to Harvey in 1949 and asked to be placed on the boats because the schedule allowed for some days off so that he could visit his family in Duncan, Oklahoma. In 1951, he went to work on the pump trucks in Harvey and transferred back to Houma in 1952. After serving some time in the army, he went back to work for Halliburton where he worked as a diesel mechanic until 1971. He quit Halliburton in 1971 because of circumstances around the Shell platform fire, and after going to school to study mechanics, he spent the last 13-14 years of his career working for Duplantis Trucking