CowboyChevelle

Louisiana Oilfields
Pilot

I work in the oil fields in Louisiana, lately I’ve noticed some weird things happening. For those of you who do not know, on a rig we work 12 hours a day for 7 days a week, I can assure you what I am about to tell you is not due to sleep deprivation.

Being in the bayous, we had firearms on the rig for when we went off site. We were allowed to store our guns on the rig as long as they were unloaded and stored in a container. I am the manager on this particular rig. At 11PM on May 22nd, I received a text message from the manager of another rig, it read “Hey Miller, a few of our guys are down with the flu. Do you have any derrickhands you can spare?” I replied “Yeah I’ll send Reno and Lee. I’ll boat them in by 9AM tomorrow.”

The next morning I woke up at 4AM. I went and woke Reno and Lee up for the trip. It’s a 3 hour trip by boat and we wanted to be early. By the time they had their bags packed it was 5AM. By 5:15 they set out on the airboat with 2 radios. When they reached the other rig, I was notified by the manager, and was thanked for sending some extra muscle.

May 25th
My phone buzzed in my pocket, the manager was calling. I answered it. “Hello?”
There was a reply “Howdy Miller, we finished the work and we’re sending your guys back now. They’ll get back by midnig—”
“Rich, what is it?”
He hung up. “What the hell?”
I tried the radio. “Reno, Lee? You there brother?”
The radio came back with static and died with a squelch.