Interviewer(s): James Sell; Lauren Penney; Colleen O'Donnell. Houma, LA

Affiliation: University of Arizona

AJ Doss was discovered by CJ Christ, who was doing personal interviews of anyone who had seen any U-boat activity in the Gulf of Mexico. AJ had gone with his drilling crew to look at a ship (the David McElvey, torpedoed May 27, 1942) that had been torpedoed near his rig and was photographed on deck with his crew. In the course of his interview about that incident, CJ also found that AJ was a toolpusher and arranged for me to interview him. AJ was 82 at the time of the interview, in a wheelchair as he recovered from an automobile accident. The interview with AJ also includes his wife, Madge, CJ, and for a short time, his son, Arles Jr. and his wife. All these people are hard of hearing and CJ, especially, was not aware of the ease with which a tape recorder could "hear" sidebar conversations, so at times the tapes may be hard to follow because of background noise. After our June 28 talk, AJ called, saying he was not sure I quite understood what he meant by directional drilling, so he invited me back to view some rough sketches and discuss it further; so I returned for a short discussion on July 11. Mr. Doss was identified to be reinterviewed because of his military service during World War II. He arrived at the interview accompanied by a friend, Ms. Moore, who often drives him to appointments. She remained in the room throughout the interview. The third interview was conducted as part of the study of the links between WWII and the offshore industry.

Arles ("AJ") Doss was a second generation Texaco oil worker. His father worked 42 years for Texaco, mostly in Caddo Parish, LA, and he and his brother worked 34 and 32 years respectively. In fact, Doss Point on Caddo Lake is named after his father. His son, Arles Jr., also worked 15 years as a Chevron toolpusher. AJ started out as a roughneck for Texaco in 1942, beginning at Golden Meadow and moving to Dog Lake, Lake Pelto, and Garden Island with the barge Ellzey. From 1944-47 he served in the military. When he returned from the service, he went back to roughnecking at Caillou Island. In 1948 he was promoted to driller on a workover rig, then later moved to the barge, Hosey Campbell. The Campbell was a steam barge and was remembered affectionately. In 1955, AJ was promoted to tool pusher and worked on the early offshore rigs at South Pass Block 37. He worked on the first generation "barge and tender" rigs and also developed an expertise in directional drilling. He retired in 1975, but continued as consultant for Sea Drill, Gulf Oil, and Quintana Petroleum.