Interviewer(s): S. Wiltz. Lafayette, LA

Affiliation: University of Louisiana at Lafayette

Claude Sonnier was born in 1918 in Scott, Louisiana, into a farming family. He attended Southwestern Louisiana Institute (SLI) from 1937-40, earning a degree in electrical engineering. After graduating, he got a surveying job with S and W Construction, but was soon drafted into the Army during World War Two, where he stayed for five years. Upon leaving the military in December 1945, he was immediately hired by Humble Oil Company (now Exxon) and soon made operator. Three years later he was put in charge of his first crew. During his career he worked in many different locations including Florida, Houston, west Texas, east Africa, and the North Sea. In 1978 he retired from Humble after working for them for 32 and a half years. He describes working on a seismic crew in the late '40s, working in the Florida marshes, new technologies (e.g., 3-D instruments), and the various animals he encountered in the field.