A brief Bio of Robert S. Ballard
almost a travelogue in itself...
In my formative years, I grew up a 'military brat'. As an ankle biter, I lived in San Antonio, Tx, then Tacoma, Washington, then back to San Antonio. I started kindergarten while Pop was based at the Narsarsuaq Airbase, Greenland (see links about "Bluie West One", a common name for the base, here and here). We then headed back to (and I think this is the right order but don't hold me to it) Petaluma, Ca., then Biloxi, Ms., then on to East Falmouth, Ma., then to Merced, Ca., then on to Rapid City, SD. Whew!
We then headed to Ft. Worth, TX. and managed to settle down for 4 years while my Dad flew in every B-58 that came off the assembly line at General Dynamics. That was a bit of a travel respite for us but then we had to take off again. On to the Toul Rosieres Nato Airbase in France then to the UK, spending my junior and senior years at Central High School, Bushey Hall, Watford, England. Lived in Weybridge for a year, then Rickmansworth for a year. All this travel was certainly a big hassle for my Mother as she also had my 3 younger brothers and 2 younger sisters in tow.
Well Europe was fun and after that came to an end, we headed back to the states to Albuquerque, NM., (18 years old, I had learned to appreciate beer while in the UK and the minimum drinking age in NM was 21! <grrr>). We lived there for two years before Pop retired and took the family back to Ft. Worth.
After college, I found staying in one place a little boring and wanted to continue traveling so I became a marine 'doodlebugger' [oil prospector] to continue my travels. I've been doing that now for the last 34+ years.
I began my seismic career with Western Geophysical in the summer of 1973. I worked all over the Gulf of Mexico and made one short stint in Nicaragua. I quickly worked my way up from 'back deckie' to crew coordinator and was the 'coordinator' in charge of operations while on many of the Western 'green & whites'.
When GECO decided to move into the Americas in the summer of 1980, I answered their call and was the first American field employee of their yet to be established Houston office. I began in Alaska learning the 'Geco way' on the GECO Alpha and Beta then took over as party chief on the S/V Malæne Østervold in Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela. We took the Malæne all over the GoM and East coast of the US. While doing a job on the west coast of Florida, ARCO made me an 'offer I could not refuse' and the move from contractor to client was made.
I spent the bulk of my career with Atlantic Richfield (ARCO) at their research center in Plano,Texas. I was there for 18.7 years until July of 2000 when the personnel phase-out as a result of the ARCO sale to BP Amoco was completed. During that time, I had increasing responsibility for planning, contract terms and specifications writing, risk assessment, field operations QA, budgeting and project finalization. I was involved on the planning, operations supervision and quality control end, for numerous marine streamer and OBC 2D and 3D seismic projects in Alaska and the Americas, the North Sea, Morocco, Qatar, the Caspian Sea, Sakhalin Island, China and South East Asia.
After 'retiring' from ARCO I joined the world of independent contracting. I worked in Mumbai, India for 8 months in 2001 for Reliance Petroleum running their seismic operations. I left after a season when the monsoon shut down activities. I chose not to return.
I then contracted to BHP Billiton Petroleum as Project Manager in their Global Geophysical Operations group, based in Houston. My duties included planning, tendering, contracting, HSE and operations supervision in various locations.
I am currently contracted to Marathon Oil Company in both G&G Program Management within Global Procurement and supporting seismic operations in the Seismic Systems group within Technical Services.
I don't know how many passports I've filled up but I've been around. If "been there, done that" can be said by anyone, I guess I qualify as one who can. I've traveled to a lot of interesting places and for the most part, have really benefited from my travels. See the travels link at left.