Interviewer: Preetam Prakash

Affiliation: University of Arizona

Mr. Bobby Jones, whom I had interviewed while conducting fieldwork during the summer of 2010, had recommended several times that I try to speak with Allen Douglas. Mr. Jones had said that Mr. Douglas was someone who not only had long experience working offshore but who had also been instrumental in facilitating the entrance of many younger people in the area into the offshore oil industry. I tried contacting Mr. Douglas when I was in the area in 2010 but was unable to get a hold of him. I tried calling him again in 2011 and this time we agreed to meet at his home in Waynesboro.

Mr. Douglas was born in 1958 in Burris, LA, but his family had soon moved back to the area around Waynesboro. Mr. Douglas had had family members who worked for the offshore oil industry as he was growing up, but he had initially gone to work logging. He had been prompted to find a job offshore in 1980, out of a desire to provide increased stability for his family. Unlike the majority of others I had interviewed to date, Mr. Douglas had started out his career working overseas in South America and said that several others in the area had also gotten their start in the industry overseas. He had worked in a number of overseas locations throughout the course of his career, including in waters off the coast of England and Canada. While Mr. Douglas had gotten used to the offshore schedule fairly quickly, he discussed how his working in the industry had sometimes been difficult for his family. One issue that Mr. Douglas spoke about in some detail was the lack of training programs and other infrastructure associated with the offshore oil industry in Central MS, something which he saw as sometimes inhibiting the entrance of local people into the industry.