When Ed Schreiner started with Noble Drilling over 20 years ago, he and Raquel were newlyweds. Ed wanted to go internationally, reasons being the stability of International work as well as the 28/28 day rotation. Ed was young and eager with land rig drilling experience only , but very convincing that if given the chance offshore, he'd shine!! He got his chance.
Noble had certain restrictions for the employees and one was the hair length, so Ed got a bit of a haircut. and after all the documentation, immunization, giving notice etc., Ed was on his way to Venezuela. He had all his instructions; who would pick him up at the airport and which hotel this driver would take him to . The boarding and flight went well and Ed was pretty hyped about his new career path in this industry. Once the flight had landed he got his baggage and quickly got into the car driven by a person he thought was his driver who was to take and drop him at the hotel and this driver did just that, oddly the room hadn't been paid for so Ed gave the desk clerk his credit card. It wasn't long before Ed discovered that this was not the Noble Driver, the hotel was not the hotel used by Noble and someone else suddenly started using his credit card. I'm assuming the credit card company called his home because shortly after this fiasco, I get the call from Ed's family who were very upset about what was happening to this fine young Saskatchewan fellow. I assured everyone he would be rescued and immediately called Gene House, G.M Venezuela, to enlighten him of the situation.. Within a few hours, which I'm sure seemed like an eternity to Ed and family, he was rescued. Not only had Ed's experience with a driver and hotel been unnerving but when he went into the office and was introduced to Gene House, Gene took one look at at his hair length and called him a long haired hippie, followed by a call to me about the long haired hippie that had been sent to his division..
It all went pretty smoothly after that, Ed turned into a pretty typical seasoned world oilfield traveler, complaining about not enough days at home - but they do have a lovely family of four so he's had some days at home. Their fourth baby was only a few weeks old when attending the Rig Managers meetings in Houston along with his mom and dad.
I commented later to Ed that their young fellow was a much better traveler than his dad, he didn't get into any trouble nor did he complain once on the flight home .
In 2020 Ed had a very bad accident while motocrossing with his son. His neck was badly broken and Raquel was informed by the doctor that the fact the Ed had survived the crash at all was a miracle. This guy had an angel on his shoulder, of course Ed claims he is the angel and the proof is the halo he wore for months along with the neck brace. The great news is that he is back at work.
As a reminder of safe behaviour, Raquel had the jersey Ed was wearing at the time of the accident as well as the pins that had kept his head in place, framed.
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