Interviewer: Jacob Campbell

Affiliation: University of Arizona

Mr. Millet is a family friend of the interviewer’s friend, David Davis, who grew up in Houma. After a dinner at the Millet’s house, Mr. Frank agreed to be interviewed about his career in the oil field service industry. Georgette, Frank’s wife, was also supportive of this project, and offered to help obtain statistics and historical documents from the study period, through her position with the City of Houma. Mr. Millet and I met at his office on Venture Blvd. Afterwards, he introduced me to other service industry managers over lunch.

Mr. Millet was born in New Orleans in 1951. His father was a career postal employee. When he was still young, the family moved to Houma, where Frank has lived since. He first began working in the oil industry in 1973, taking a job with Wilson Supply. The company provided daily shipments to rigs and platforms, supplying basic necessities and light equipment rentals. In 1975, he took a position with TBW Industries, which manufactured and distributed tanks and winches to be used offshore. This company went bust in 1982, and he went to work for Alfa Laval, a company based in Sweden with an office in Houma, which built and sold centrifuges, designed to separate drilling muds. In 1994, he started his own company, FM Equipment, which distributes Alfa parts and services these machines on drilling operations in the Gulf.