Interviewer: Preetam Prakash

Affiliation: University of Arizona

Preetam contacted James Waller after interviewing Larry Pickens, who suggested that he was another Wayne County resident who had worked on the production side of things who might be willing to participate in the study. James had been born in Waynesboro, but had moved around quite a bit as a child due to his father being in the military. James had initially gone into seismic work in the 1970s shortly after he had graduated from high school. After doing seismic work for several years he had applied for and gotten a job with Texaco, where he started off as a roustabout. James had always worked in production and eventually worked his way up to crane inspector, a position which he still occupies. He currently works out of Pascagoula, MS, only 80 or so miles away from his home, but had commuted to Intercoastal City for a long time. Throughout the interview, he returned to the dramatic changes in safety and technology which he had witnessed since beginning to work offshore. According to James, technological advances, and accompanying increases in required expertise and education levels had been especially pronounced in production as opposed to drilling since the 1980s.