Interviewer(s): A. Anand. Montegut, LA

Affiliation: University of Arizona

I was referred to Mr. Elce Pinell by Mr. Ferrel Chauvin, with whom he'd worked on a rig for on the same crew for over a decade. He was a bit reserved throughout the interview, though he warmed up a little bit toward the end. We conducted the interview at their dining table.

Mr. Elce Pinell was born in 1928 and left school in 1943 when his father died. After odd jobs and two years in the army (1945-47), he entered the oilfield in 1947 with South Coast Corporation. He roughnecked on rigs for Crown and Gracie from 1949-51. Then he moved to Texaco to roughneck, owing to better working conditions and benefits. Mr. Pinell worked as a derrick man, a motorman and a driller, and was promoted to drilling foreman in 1972. In 1976 he was field foreman on a project for high-pressure gas drilling in Alabama. By 1982, he had 136 men and 5 rigs under him as a field foreman in Garden Island Bay. He retired in 1983.