Ever wonder what it would be like working on an offshore oil rig?
Would you ever expect that a 25-year-old woman, not long out of college, would be in charge of such a complex and dangerous drilling operation?
Meet Peg Howell, of Pawley's Island, SC, who at that young age was the first woman to be the “company man” on an offshore oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. She was working for
Chevron.
Yep, that’s what they called her. She was the person in charge, so she was the “company man.”
In today's episode on the NFN Radio News Podcast, Peg reveals what it was like to be one of the last two people left on the rig’s platform after all of the workers had been evacuated during a hurricane. It’s a pretty harrowing story that comes up in the latter part of the episode.
She talks about how her "Archie Bunker" dad came to visit her on the rig, was shocked that she was in charge of all of that, but had to wait for the helicopter ride to the rig so they could clean out the blood from an injured worker.
Today, as the spokesperson for SODA — Stop Offshore Drilling in the Atlantic, she’s helped lead the battle to prevent offshore drilling, something she once did for a living. But after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill catastrophe, she's committed to fighting such operations because of the environmental devastation they can cause.
In the podcast, Peg reveals how her views were changed and how the battle has been going, a battle she’s now waging under her third president.
So, take a listen to “No Drilling in the Atlantic!”