Episode #28: The Day I Nearly Met Someone Famous and Other Gibson Adventures

Redi-Mix sold to a newly formed publicly traded company in 2006 shortly before the US economy began to falter in 2007. The parent company was poorly managed at the corporate level in Houston and they had grown very quickly with several large acquisitions across the country that left them drowning in debt. After several downsizing events including many layoffs they filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11. A couple of months prior to this they eliminated my Vice President position in 2009 after working at the same place for over 28 years. With the national economy in such bad condition virtually all new construction had stalled and nobody in this industry was hiring a guy like me in my early 50s. With one son in college, one still in high school and too young to retire, I had to start over and search for a new career.   

From late 2010 mid 2015 I worked for a crude oil trucking company owned by a Canadian firm, Gibson Energy with its US headquarters in Mesquite Texas. My office was 96 miles from my house so I had a 200 mile daily commute, but I just considered that part of the job. I would leave home by 4:30 am and get home between 6:30-7:30 pm depending on traffic. During the first year I worked as an Asset Manager and then moved to the safety department as the National Safety Manager and reported to the Director of Health Safety Security and Environmental (HSSE). Gibson owned  over 500 trucks and 600 trailers and operated in15 states utilizing an Owner/Operator business model with Shell Oil as their biggest customer. Below is a picture at a typical pumping unit, oil tank set and a 53' crude oil tanker that I took in Wyoming in 2013. The trucks would pick up oil from the tank set, transport it and unload at a pipeline injection point or at a refinery.

I traveled occasionally while working in assets, but when I moved into the safety department I traveled extensively and in 2014 traveled greater than 60% of the time. My work in the field primarily consisted of field based operator safety training, major accident investigations and auditing corporate policies of trucking operations, driver safety and hazards associated with crude oil handling specifically the deadly presence of hydrogen sulfide.

Since oil wells produce 7 days a week and 24 hours a day, oil is hauled from the storage tanks on the same 7/24 schedule. This meant my phone would ring all hours of the day and night, weekends and holidays. One morning around 1:00 am my phone rings and I get a report of a driver that had an accident trying to load at a tank set between San Angelo and Midland Texas and I have to investigate as the driver was already on the way to the hospital with non life threatening injuries. My choices are to leave and drive about six and a half hours to get there or drive to Dallas and fly to Midland. Since I had only about 3 hours sleep, I decide to get another hour of sleep and catch the first flight out of Dallas Love Field at 5:00 am. 

I complete the investigation, drive back to Midland, return the rental car late in the day and get on a Southwest Airline flight back to Dallas. As I board the plane I notice the seat cushions on the first three rows on my left are turned upside down and I wonder what that is all about, but I grab an isle seat on the 4th row, grab my laptop to work on my accident report. As the last of the passengers drift in and find their seat I see a guy in a dark suit walk slowly down the aisle and back then exits the plane, then another guy dressed the same way does the same thing. I wonder what is up, but I get back to my report.

They close the doors and the pre-flight announcements start. As the plane begins to push back from the terminal, it stops again and the front cabin door is opened again. Now I know something is up, because this never happens. Then I see the same two guys wearing dark suits board the plane and now notice they both are wearing an ear piece. They walk the length of the aisle again and sit across the aisle from me. As it turns out these guys are Secret Service agents. Then another agent walks in and then steps in former First Lady Laura Bush then another agent follows behind her. If I hadn't been running on only a few hours of sleep I might have tried to say hello and chat but decided that might not be the best idea especially on a plane. I found it interesting that a former First Lady chose to fly the cattle call airline of Southwest.  

The first time I flew a turbo prop out of Denver to Gillette Wyoming, I encountered an odd pre-flight procedure. As you may know these turbo props are not only a rather small aircraft but also when those twin propellers crank up and the engines rev to full speed, they are surprisingly loud, even inside the cabin. That morning was not only cold and crisp but also very windy and standing outside the terminal to walk up the portable boarding stairs, I am glad I wore a coat rather than just a lined windbreaker which is easier to manage on a small plane. It appears the majority of the passengers are working in the oil and gas industry as most are carrying hard hats and wearing FR (fire resistant) clothing. We finally get boarded, find a seat and the plane is about 80% full. With the props spinning and about to taxi toward the runway, the flight attendant is speaking to about six or seven people and they all get up and move to different seats in the cabin. I found out later that these aircraft are quite sensitive to weight distribution and the flight crew had to move some folks around the cabin to equalize that distribution. Of course we make the trip without any problems and this is a regular practice, but it is a bit unnerving.

I am in Wyoming for a few days and when it comes time to head home, I head back to what is without a doubt the smallest airport I have ever seen. There is only one gate, one place to check in, and one security check point. This airport primarily serves turbo prop planes and the occasional small private jets because the runway is too short for larger aircraft. Now I see the lady that checks the baggage is also the same lady that works as the gate agent as we get ready to board  

On this particular day a big snow storm is moving in and the flight I am on this late afternoon is to be the last one out and they are hurrying to get the plane that has just landed cleared and the passengers going back to Denver on board for a quick turn around. 

I call Carol Ann and tell her this whole story as the snow is now beginning to accumulate on the tarmac and she says do not get on that plane today and stay the night there, but I am determined to be home that evening.

As I walk out of the terminal to the boarding stairs, I see the lady working that was working as the security and gate agent and now see that she is helping load the luggage onto the plane and I ask her if she is also pilot the plane. She laughs and says well, not yet. The snow is beginning in earnest as we take off but we get up and head south pretty quickly. It is dark shorty after take off and it so cold inside the plane that I can see my frosty breath during the entire trip to Denver.

The day prior to a scheduled OSHA training class in San Antonio on accident investigation and I had signed up for included Tom Hill, Mikel Wiley and me, Tom picked me up at the airport and Mike was not scheduled to arrive for a few hours. We drove around the area and found a local bazaar to find a lot of unique and odd items. When I saw this goofy straw hat and stick on mustaches I decided I would prank Mike when we picked him up at the airport. When his flight arrived we drove to the passenger pickup area and see Mike looking for us. Tom parks about 10' away with his fake mustache on and sunglasses and I walk up behind Mike with my disguise on and say in a very southern dialect 'hey senor, you looked lost. Do you need a ride or something amigo?' His reply is something like hey man, get away from me. Then in my regular voice I say 'now Mikel, is that any way to talk to your boss?' He then immediately recognizes me and profusely apologizes and we all have a big laugh. Here we are as we pull out of the airport.

On one occasion we had an opportunity to haul hot oil that was barged down a tributary that feeds the Mississippi River to an unload station and I was called upon to review the facility and develop a Job Hazard Assessment. I was already in Mississippi for safety meetings and Tom picks me up and we drive to the location and develop our assessment. 

  

Upon completion of this process we head toward the airport and decide a side trip to Tupelo is in order to see the birthplace of Elvis Presley since neither of us has been there before. The house is so very small, only a two room home. The museum and visitor center is awesome and so glad we stopped in. 

Afterwards we are back on the route to the airport but first, another first for me, a stop at one of Tom's favorite fast food places, Krystal's which is a clone of White Castle. Tom bragged about how great they were but I was a bit underwhelmed, but for his sake, I feign a love for these little sliders.

Each year we would perform Safety Stand Down meetings throughout all the areas of operations and I would conduct these in different areas through out the year. During these types of meetings I would often times take some of the safety team from the Mesquite office along with me. In November 2014 I took Ivana Hickey with me to our operations in Louisiana after a stop at our Houston office. A couple of days later I finish the required meetings and was ready to drive back to Texas, but again decided a side trip was in order. Instead of driving directly west to Houston then north to Mesquite, we drive north to West Monroe before heading west. 

We arrive a few hours later in West Monroe which is the home of the famous Robertson Family Duck Dynasty headquarters. None of the family were around that day so we were a little disappointed to miss them but it was a fun trip. I did find out that duck calls can be very expensive. We tour the facility and pick up a few souvenirs and grab lunch at Willie's Duck Diner and get back to Mesquite about four hours later that day.

One of the things that happened while flying home from Denver was one afternoon occurred when boarding a Southwest Airline flight. All was going well as it has the many times before when I flew this airline until it was time to push back from the gate. They close the door, pull the ramp away from the plane, start the preflight announcements and the engines won't start. They try again and no luck again. They try a third, then a fourth time with the same result. The pilot addresses the passengers to let us know we will deplane this air craft and another plane will be brought around to the gate. We were asked to stay in the area of the gate so we can board the plane quickly and get back on schedule as they can. We all get off the plane and suddenly because the terminal gate door to the ramp is still open, the pilot tries once more and the engines fire off. The gate agent asks us all to return to the plane and prepare for take off. In just a few minutes we are all back on the plane, seated and ready to go. As we push back from the terminal, the pilot comes back on the PA and claims this was the fastest boarding of a commercial flight in history. I am not sure that was true, but we did a very quick turnaround for sure.

Epilog-

I work at Gibson for another 8 months and in early 2015 the price of crude oil begins to retreat and stays on that downward trend and in a few months it is in range of $28 per barrel from a high of $110 per barrel the year prior. I find out how very volatile this industry can be and when the price of crude is up, things are very good and it requires a lot of support industry and that employs a lot of people from upstream (drilling and exploration) to midstream (transportation and logistics) to downstream (refined products and distribution) and all of these at an unbelievable operational cost. 

But when that price retreats like this, it becomes a very difficult industry to work in with so much infrastructure costs to support and maintain and in June of 2015 my position as National Safety Manager was eliminated. Anytime you lose a job for something you did not do or cause it is difficult, however they did give me a 90 day severance package and two months later I am  the Director of HSSE for Gibson's biggest competitor, Bridger Logistics in Addison Texas and now I am working 25 miles closer to home.

My experience in this industry was very interesting, rewarding and I thought I had been in charge of  worker and transportation safety in the ready mix industry for over 20 years, I learned a lot in this second career in the oil and gas industry. I also learned there is safety management, and then there is next level safety management and I am thankful for the opportunities and the things I learned while working for these companies. I made a lot of friends from all over the country and Canada that I stay in touch with even though I have been out of that industry for almost a decade.

Epilog- The famous folks I did get to meet-

• In the summer of 1987 I did get to meet and had a quick chat with Bobby Valentine who was the manager of Texas Rangers.
• In 1993 I first met John Niland who was 6 time All Pro offensive guard for the Dallas Cowboys as a vendor for the company I was working for and many years later he worked for me at another company as a concrete salesman. 
• In the fall of 1996 I met and visited with former NFL quarterback Ron Jaworski who played for the Los Angeles Rams, Philadelphia Eagles and finished his career with the Miami Dolphins. 
• In the late 1990s I met several of the Texas Rangers baseball players at a fund raising event that Redi~Mix was a sponsor. At this event I brought Brad with me to meet his favorite ball player Rusty Greer who spent some time with him driving him around in a golf cart at the event.
• In 2007 while in Miami for Super Bowl 41 I met Isaiah Robertson who played for Rams back in the day and I was a fan. This was the same week I met and visited with Roger Staubach at his company party.

 

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