Pipeline Blues - Booze & Whores

Booze and Whores, what else best describes the Trans-Alaska-Pipeline “Construction” days during the mid-70s? As fat paychecks and time off for “good behavior” in “glitter gulch” whore towns like Fairbanks and Anchorage, it finds its placemark in History. I didn’t jump on the bandwagon conclusion that “pick & shovel construction work” was in my “bag of tricks”, so maintained my income survival with the University of Alaska - in Fairbanks. OK, my “shanty-shack” no-pay-per-view room with $$$board$$$ was a one-roomer at a whore house, as housing was hard to find during this “black gold rush”. No, NOT a “sugar-shack”, praytell no one not a misspelling! See, as headline news talked about the “Johnny Paycheck” from digging pipeline ditches providing for an awesome income that which provided for “More Booze and More Whores”, well outfits like the University being a subsidiary of the “State of Alaska”, it stood its ground. It was well known that come “Oil In” the state would be rolling in dough, so to keep the work staff happy please don’t abandon this ship, paychecks increased accordingly even if not a “Teamster”. And I wasn’t a “construction” guy so kept my promise to the campus Chancellor and for real, digging a ditch for Jimmy Hoffa’s corpse? Rumors galore, booze galore, whores galore! But after “Oil In” 1977, I did go to work for the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company, as the distinguished operator of the pipeline found me through an acquaintance. I remember the interview in Anchorage, a round-table discussion of 6, and I was offered a job in Valdez. But before that assignment at the END of the line, it was off to Pump Station#5, as that was wherein “Basic Training” was stationed and “Thay gonna make me a pipeliner” indoctrination christening. And I remember this “Tender Foot Camp” very well as a guy named Chris was my assigned “Hey pardner”! He knew everybody, especially Will the instructor, so I was glad to be his room-mate only to find out early on his dad was a “Big Wig” that ran the “pipeline”, so why not buddy up! Now PS#5 is a great place to get your feet wet what this 800-mile “dip-stick” was all about. It’s a station on the “mainline”, but no pumps involved just a pipeline relief station so would over time second as a “retirement home” for “old people just grow lonesome waiting for someone to say”…re-pipe that latrine line into the “mainline” send thum human “floaters” south! Senior citizen plumbing issues, again! But at “Basic”, all-in-all one gets to learn all about the “pipeline life”, how you will gain 20-pounds the first hitch from all the food, donut trays everywhere. Not for me though, as Valdez did not afford that kind of luxury as down there you had to pack your own lunch. All-in-all again some more, it was a wonderful experience this “Basic Training Bootcamp”. And head instructor Mr. Will, well he liked the “bottle”, but was an excellent teacher supposedly once-upon-a-time an engineer for Boeing - and the pump stations’ “power turbines” were nothing short an engine in likeness found on a plane’s wing so he had a lot to offer. So that was my first introduction into “pipeline life” and even though one is taught all about “No Booze Allowed”, hey it was still the aftermath of the “construction days” so it takes time to ween away what this pipeline was built upon - said again “Booze & Whores”. OK, there were no whores at the “Basic Training”, I thought! Not bad, one out of two let bygones be bygones a good sign of the times.  OK, after class a handful of the “regulars” would head down the road to some abandoned construction camp, and come back talking about “sweater girl” and smelling of…And after that training was complete, my bags were packed and off to Valdez. And it would be only a matter of time wherein “that damn booze” would once again hound-dog my conscious, not far behind the whores in full force, as in “Corporate Whores”. Now the “booze bottle” revival, well that was reserved for the “Tanker Crews” that called on the “Port of Valdez” with their Super “shit-don’t-stink” Tanker mentality at the time so declared “Off Limits”, not the “booze” but any attempt to STOP this high seas binge drinking, they were getting away with this “drinking on the job” a habitual like routine. Now this was NOT a systemic like problem, as it was only a few bad apples that took advantage of the “Mutiny on the Bottle Ban”. There were probably 18-dedicated tankers that came and went through the “Valdez Narrows” with dock-side accommodation privileges at the “Alyeska Marine Terminal”. And even though we complained “out loud” when we were called upon to help “gang plank” a crew that could not walk a straight-line after a 12-hour free-for-all furlough in town at the one and only “Pipeline Club”, a crew that would soon find the privilege behind the helm of a tanker loaded up with crude oil, nobody was listening! It was a totally fucked up state of affairs! Behind the wheel of a tanker, front door service from the local bars in town via the “Yellow Cab” that held entrance access privileges to the “Restricted Terminal” above what was afforded by my own personal Alyeska badge! We complained again and again and again, went angry and took up arms - RIGID 818 pipe wrenches as knuckle busters of defiance in strength - yet we were then considered the “villains” and the drunks the “victims”! It sucked. Then Joe Hazelwood…the rest is history in the making once again and would stain forever the once good reputation of the “Pipeline People” not to forget very easily stain forever a once “pristine” wilderness at sea. Alyeska had the time but not the sincere effort to STOP such madness! They set their sights on the wrong damn problem! Said again, those that stood up and against this crazed fixation that DWIng through Prince William Sound was an OK thing, we were targeted as “disgruntled” Union sympathizers. Look, when I singled out this “Corporate Whore” thing, no doubt about it the Alyeska President George M. Nelson was such a whore for his bosses, the President of British Petroleum - aka SOHIO and of course ARCO! And yes another Nelson at the helm, a George N. Nelson and Harold Heinze. Yes “whore” as in “mouth-piece”. Here is what I mean. A few days after the EXXON Valdez wreck on “Bligh Reef” back in 1989, said again had the “Corporate Whores” listened to the voice of a UNION this disaster would have never had a chance of happening, well this “Corporate Whore” mentality did not give a rat’s ass that the “house of ill repute” had been raided. Just get the bed-sheets made up and get that sign lit up “Open for Business” as the clientele was getting pissed off. See, as oil was still exploding overboard the sunken ship-of-fools, from a massive 30-foot “can opener” like crack in the hull of Joe Hazelwood’s broken dream-weaving machine because it was not a “Steady Ahead Mate” but “full speed ahead to the next saloon” peddle to the metal then “crash”…gives joyriding a whole new dimension. But listen up what the “whore” mouthpiece finds:

MR. ARCO HEINZE: Well, if you can convoy tankers through minefields, you can -- you can get them through a little oil.
MR. ALYESKA NELSON: Yeah. You can get then through a little oil, yeah.

That was the “Corporate Whore” mentality! So booze and whores here, booze and whores there…Go North Young Man I did to Pump Station#1 as my family disowned me for wearing an Alyeska logo after the “wreck”. And my first trip North on a company charter, it was delayed getting off the runway in Anchorage, as everybody kept saying where’s Cal? Like in Cal Worthington and his dog spot I thought? No, it was the calling out for the Station Supervisor, AWOL check-in time and by this time a few of the station technicians set out on a “mission” the 4^th Avenue “skid-row” bowery boys just want to have fun. What The Freud held my most inner thoughts, and soon enough here comes the crew carrying a guy “Dead Drunk”. Thrown onto the plane and when we arrived at the Deadhorse airport 3-hours later, carried on to the company bus then carried to his PLQ bunk at the station and 3-days later, low and behold there’s Cal at the morning meeting! Like nothing happened, as this was the “routine”! And this was routine, supported by a “Corporate Culture” that would one day think it was OK to “SPY” on its workers. The sad thing, it was in Alaska way up far and away from…the U.S. Constitution finds no boundaries but “Corporate Whores” and “Booze’m Buddies” seem to not give a rat’s ass about what that American flag is all about, as if “Patriotism” was on the agenda, had the “Corporate Whore” mentality listened up to the voice of its “dedicated workers” in UNION struggling to not have to commit a felony by busting the chops of a drunk sea captain that went fascinated pissing off the berth to feeding salmon below that we fish for and eat…instead getting a hard-on to “Kill” that “UNION”. Just think had they listened and taken appropriate action, that “wreck” would not have had the opportunity to wake those “Corporate Whores” in the early morning hours of March 24^th, 1989. But “whores” sell their souls, to the “Call of the Wicked”. But wait, there’s more to this story. See, I would be sent back to that “Basic Training Bootcamp” after 11-successful years as a “Lead Technician Level VI” and it baffled the instructors. But not to fret as it wasn’t back to “basics” to learn the ABC’s of “pipelining” but the Ps & Qs of minding my own business and accepting the fact that “drinking” and “whores” were still part of it all, get over it and don’t ever entertain that UNION again. So I quit, as Alyeska and its compact with the “Corporate Whores” of the “Owner Company”, it didn’t intimidate this American Patriot as when the “voice” is silenced, the enemy wins.