They Killed the “HOSS”!

Lynn McArthur, we called him the “Hoss”, he reciprocated in the same namesake our brethren vein, it had meaning greater then friendship his inspiration. Lynn was an electrical engineer, and the best that money could buy, the latter in the sense of you get what you pay for. And Alyeska had deep pockets, so it was not a surprise that McArthur would come to work for Uncle Al - in one of the most challenging and demanding positions found along that 800-mile pipeline. Settling in as the “Valdez Marine Terminal I & E Supervisor”. In that position, providing the guidance to a crew of control engineers, instrument and electrical technicians a head-count greater then all the pumping stations combined those same disciplines - so the gravity of what was a stake at the END of the line mind-boggling. And the “Operations” relied heavily on McArthur and his department, in efforts to grasp an understanding what all the bells & whistles meant on over 150 separate control systems, hundreds of process transmitters, analyzers, flow & ESD valves the list is long not to forget a local grid generating 127000-volts in electricity! And boy did McArthur have his work cut out for him, as did the technicians that he supervised. Look, in my career and YES there is life before & after Alyeska, I have worked with engineers from Texas Instruments to Bell Aerospace to Siemens, very few come close to what Lynn McArthur offered as an all-around spokesperson and advocate of ethical engineering principles though practice and fellow worker respect. With Lynn, there was no such thing as a “dumb” question when it came to control theory and that RESPECT resonated the rank and file! And it was the greatest of achievements in technical accomplishments to get the “Terminal” and all of its critical control infrastructure up to standards. Matter of fact, if Woody Guthrie was today penning his patriotic tune “The Biggest Thing That Man Has Ever Done”, after the verse about the Grand Coulee Dam and “I built mines and mills and factories to run for Uncle Sam”, there would be a verse about the building of the Trans-Alaskan-Pipeline, because “There's warehouse guys and teamsters and guys that skin the cats.” And another attribute our trials and tribulations at the end-of-the line in Valdez, we relied on Anchorage for not very much in support. OK, HR remembered a worker’s birthday. It was like a separate company, in the beginning that is, but it was only a matter of time the “corporate” bowel-weevils would infiltrate, and that was bad for our business! Sad, as some of the pipeline’s management rejects were sent our way, upon arrival they went confused the immensity and intensity the “Terminal” infrastructure and how it was supposed to work so tried in vain to confuse us. A smokescreen in efforts we NOT figure out their incompetency, and they went confused on simple issues from their pipeline time, like why they had to pack their own lunch! Look, unlike the “pipeline” there was No Free Lunch in Valdez! And we didn’t have a “cafeteria plan” like what was afforded over at the “Corporate” in Anchorage. So by the early 80s with “throughput” anticipated reaching upwards towards that 2-million daily goal, we were “Oil In” ready in Valdez. After a lot of “hair pulling” and blown fuses, all the control systems were in alignment, everything was working as designed, it was challenging but so cool to see how it all came together and worked accordingly. Except for the “Ballast Water Treatment” facility, every component worked in unison to accomplish a goal. So amazing, from the storage tanks to berth loading and the vapor recovery element in between, all working “Oh say can you see by the dawn’s early light, what so proudly we hailed” no pollution. It was well worth our efforts directed towards success by McArthur, as it provided us an understanding of a “one-of-a-kind” super-system. The 1000-acre site, it was all connected as a single process designed to accommodate the pipeline’s deliveries and do it safely with the sensitive surrounding environment in mind. And when it was all said and done, it allowed the “Operations” a safe and sound system, understood and very reliable. We were happy and so proud of our efforts, Thank You Mr. McArthur, for caring and showing us the way forward this massive undertaking in complexity. And this bull-crap, about the Thompson Pass “slack line” and all the “White Papers” produced when some engineers thought they were on to something? Look, that creature, the “oil column in separation” was known about way back before it found bar tab popularity or 5^th Floor Bragaw Street fodder, as even the original Fluor Engineers warned of this phenomenon. The reason at the bottom of that “Pass” there exists a construction “blind Tee” for the inclusion of a 5-Mw power reduction turbine, as a means of dead-heading that momentum and quieting down that “incipient cavitation” that was to one day become a reality. And back in the early days when we had already realized the potential damage this unwanted component could allow when “gas bubbles” so generated survived a 14-mile journey to then enter the “East Metering”, the I&E under McArthur’s guidance designed a control system using a Cyborg computer and could monitor and control both “Back Pressure Control Valves” in unison and minimize the damage associated with this “slack”. We could easily control it by pushing the oil-head back up the “Junior Leslie” roller coaster! But it caused the OCC controllers a hissy-fit tissy-fit, because they had not an understanding of the effects of pressure surges on the “Incoming East Metering Custody Transfer” system, a “nothing burger” as the skid was designed to handle any and all pressure surges, the reason instead of time averaging the system incorporated “Flow Weighted Averaging” for compensation. Because some “idiot” thinking he was god’s gift to “flawed” flow measurement thought “pressure” surges were worse then “hick-ups”, the latter caused from that “column separation” and reforming as “bubbles” that could over-spin the flow meters. See, on our side we had control, the other side out-of-control, get the point! There was nothing we could not accomplish, except for that one thing, STOP those drunked-up tanker crews from invading our “Tranquility”! But put aside McArthur’s many success stories, our own success stories, when the “Union” was gaining traction again in Valdez because we were waving our RIGIDs in solidarity and warning the “drunks” not to “fuck” with us and had no qualms making it known we would bust knuckles the next confrontation, it meant time for the “Chill the Messenger” season which would morph into “Kill the Messenger” as somebody in Anchorage liked “blood”. So, I stand corrected as that is what we received from Anchorage, pure interference and a birthday wish! Lynn was the first victim of this “open season” and following that hit, the plan was to tear apart the “gang” that had made the “Valdez Marine Terminal” the pride and joy of Alyeska - look that 800-miles of dip-stick was nothing without us! I still believe that there came a “Townie” jealousy that circumcised our efforts - as we were going it alone without help from Anchorage, they wanted “blood”! They wanted us out of the way. And it would be a price to be paid, when we bargained for a “Union” because of them drunk tanker bastards, for standing up for our “Workers’ Rights”. See, when McArthur was finally transferred the writing was on the shit-house wall, it wasn’t to a deserving position as the “Boss” for a PS#1 management position, it was to a place which we all realized was a dead-end street. Let’s face the facts, PS#1 was a small fry “Valdez” with metering skids, storage tanks and a vapor recovery system. Right up McArthur’s alley. So if Alyeska really wanted to replace the Madman Cal and his puppy dog every hair in place sidekick up at Mile Post “0”, it would have been better off to transfer McArthur way north. But Pump Station#12? So this was an attempt to intimidate a born leader, the “Hoss”! Look, Lynn had not a single bone of disgruntlement and for all the years I worked under his supervision, his management style, it was a “Super Vision”. It sucked, to what was looking like a new future for the “Pipeline People” and at the same time a future for those drunks that captained those tankers in and out of Valdez. Now like already alluded upon, Alyeska always remembers the worker’s birthday, and on August 19^th in 1985 the “Hoss” called me to wish me well and in that conversation he told me about a “turbine” problem but was holding off getting help from Anchorage due poor weather. He seemed a little uptight, unusual and I sensed that maybe he was under pressure. See, as “Terminal” workers were transferred to break the “Union” because we complained about the drunk tanker crews and almost had a “brawl”, the reason we carried the RIGID 818s for protection, we were starting to get a hint of what life on the pipeline was all about - it sounded like a skunks work kiss every thing that looks like an ass and I was given my walking papers, also heading north but to PS#1. After talking with the “Hoss”, it hit me, the good ol’ days were done with! Not over with, just change was here to stay. Well in the early morning hours on the very next day, the “Hoss” was still dealing with a turbine problem at this “semi-critical” station just north of Valdez. No big deal, except this was during the time the 5^th Floor Bragaw was trying to break all records and one thing you don’t do is give George Nelson bad news in that morning meeting. So McArthur understood the ramifications. He also realized you never place workers at risk, and with challenging weather in Glenallen, well Lynn stalled any help flown over from Anchorage. At least not until daylight and maybe safer flying skies, not a popular call. He was over-ruled by Fat Alex Two Chairs and at 0205am the chartered Lear Jet with the “turbine mechanic specialist” from Anchorage crashed on approach to PS#12, 3-dead. Lynn would never forget that! And that is when we realized a sad fact of the matter at hand, they didn’t give a rat’s ass as it was “Throughput is King” over everything else. We heard the same damn thing when that EXXON Valdez wrecked, instead of getting ahead of the mess it was a push and shove to re-open the port for tanker traffic and guess what, nothing was ever done our disgust in drunks wanting to brawl, that which was the catalyst of breaking up a good thing in Valdez, and there did come a wreck! We told you so? Alyeska’s “Kill the Messenger” was in effect. Yes, they “Killed” the “Hoss” and I was also targeted, my career. But Alyeska would use me, milk me for the likes of a paycheck as I had a family to feed, and then when happy days are here again getting all they wanted from a valued employee, “Kill the Messenger” some more as I was labeled a “vocal UNION supporter”! A “Union” supporter is one thing, but place a “vocal” ahead of the pack, hope you get the point. They did it to the “Hoss”, they did it to me, so beware! And remember one other thing, Alyeska was the “brain-child” of the “Big Oil” and for real, I was told by a confidant that a “blacklist” was the fun at Human Resource luncheons! Amazing without grace, cutting the throats of those workers that did give a rat’s ass, management taking sides and strides with the bastards that abused the system, drunked fools! And when I was transferred up to PS#1 in 1985, my first trip that far north, the fucking station supervisor had to be carried off the plane into his PLQ bunk, for a three-day dry out after a week-long bender - and this was routine according to the crew? No wonder the tanker crews got away with it - preferential treatment the Alyeska way START to END! In the beginning of this lecture, “The Man Was A Hero” my association with Lynn McArthur, I mentioned a “Patriotic” undertaking by Woody Guthrie. I end with another piece of that “Biggest Thing That Man Has Ever Done”:

There was a man across the ocean, I guess you knew him well,
His name was Adolf Hitler, goddam his soul to hell;
We kicked him in the panzers and put him on the run,
And that was about the biggest thing that man has ever done.

Sounds like a remedy made to order for how Alyeska fucked over a “few good men” that saw a problem with drunks and made a stand and found retaliation their only reward or as that song of national importance finds its “a.k.a.” also a sign of the Alyeska times, “Great Historical Bum”!

Lynn, thanks and RIP always in my soul!