Guns951

So why multiple tours? Are you transferring units or do they just keep calling your units number after redeployment stateside?

Darwantae951

Well there are only two units in the whole Corps that do what I do, and we're in pretty high demand all over central Iraq. They deploy us for seven months. the first half of the first month, and the last half of the seventh are the times when we're RIP'ing with the other unit. After that we get 5 months back stateside, then head out here to do it all over again. The deployment schedule really sucks, but the job is rewarding. I'm on my second tour, and I'll have a third before I'm done. Guns, do you have any kind of Instant messenger name?

Guns951

Nope but if you have gmail you can chat with me guns951@gmail.com - if you don't have gmail email me and i'll invite you

Darwantae951

Guns, you have an email!

reno808

Thats his email. What he is trying to say is that when you log in. their is a instant messaging service built in to gmail's website.

Darwantae951

Oh I know, I was just letting him know that I sent him an email so he has my email address to invite me to use GMail.

Lanny Curlett

I don't know about the rest of you guys BUT I'm getting confused.

Guns951

Hahaha, ANYONE that needs a gmail invite to use one of the best inboxes out there send me an email to guns951@gmail.com and I'll send you an invite...limited to the first 50 people who email (at my discresion of course).

No affiliation or anything, just love the system and have a bunch of invites that aren't being used. And an invitation is just about the only way to get registered with an account.

reno808

GUNS951 its called VIP STATUS

Guns951

Yeah...but it gets lonely at the top......

Lanny Curlett

OK....where can I buy this VIP status you speak of. Normally I just get kicked to the curb.

Ski

Captain - Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit, US Gulf of Mexico.

Lanny Curlett

NIce looking MODU, Bret! I drilled and Tour Pushed on The Pacnorse (DP Drillship between Labrador and Greenland known as Iceberg Alley.)
Neddrill 2 (Drillship), Bow Drills 1,2, 3 (Semis) Sedco H (1st Gen Semi) Zapata Ugland (Semi) Canmar Explorer 1 (Drillship in the Beaufort Sea) Timesaver 2 (Mini drillship on the Great Lakes) I was on the Bow Drill One the night the Ocean Ranger went down off the East Coast of Canada and testified at the Royal Comission into that disaster. (84 killed during the sinking, all hands plus three more trying to refloat the rig to get it out to deeper water.) I miss the ocean and really enjoyed the equipment. I never got a chance to work on something with the capabilities of your rig but I have been considering going back overseas and offshore and the future is deeper and more remote to find the needed hydrocarbons as we deplete the easy to find stuff.

Merry Christmas to you,

Lanny

Ski

Damn Lanny, I worked 13 years for Zapata(Lexington, Yorktown, Concord, and the Neptune - went to Norway to get that one - they can have the North Sea!!!) before coming over to Sonat;TSF; now we're just called Transocean. Our thrusters are in for repair after severe damage from Rita but they should be back next year with updates.

Merry Christmas to you, it's my year to work. My relief and I swap out every other year so we can plan events with family.

Lanny Curlett

Boy do I get that. I can't count the number of Holidays I spent on some rig someplace but that bottom line for me, and for most of us I guess, is we wouldn't do it if we didn't appreciate the lifestyle it affords us. One thing most drilling crews don't "get" is how much it takes to be a master on one of these. Doesn't it require a Master, Any tonnage, Foreigngoing type ticket? The responsibility you carry is unbelievable and it's all good until a Rita comes at you or there's a well control problem and then you have to make the right decisions the first time and every time or people get killed and hundreds of millions of dollars lost. (It's no wonder you drink.)

Lanny