Interviewer: Jacob Campbell

Affiliation: University of Arizona

Mr. Redmond was referred by Burleigh Ruiz, both men being Texaco retirees and friends. Fuzzy meets with this Texaco group for coffee semi-regularly. Mr. Redmond lives on Presque Isle, near the Houma airport, which is where the interview took place. His son, Richard Jr., lives in Montegut and currently works on deepwater platforms for Chevron. Richard Sr. said his son would be able to speak about the industry after his retirement in the early 90s. Mr. Redmond was proud of his work overseas, and provided valuable information about this experience.

Mr. Redmond was born in Montegut in 1937, and during his youth the town was entirely dominated by Texaco. He worked with his father in a machine shop as a young man, then started working for Texaco in 1956. He began in the kitchen, then worked as “extra board”, filling in for hands that were out all over the region. After two years he started as roughneck on a rig that used and tested experimental equipment. After drilling for one year, he moved to toolpusher, working on rigs throughout Terrebonne Parish. In 1972, he went to Nigeria for seven months on a job. In ’76, he worked on land rigs in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Through the rest of his career, until retiring as a drilling superintendent in 1994, he worked a 21 and 21 schedule, travelling to Columbia, Bolivia, Argentina, Venezuela and Tunisia.