Home in Freeny, MS, teaching school, farming and flying helicopters offshore in the
Gulf of Mexico - 1966-1974 |
We returned to Mississippi in July 1966 and moved
into the house Sue's grandfather built in 1908. I got a job teaching Math
and Science at Ethel High School, a commute of 35 miles one way, and Sue went
to work at the local Sears catalog store. I rejoined my old Helicopter reserve
unit at NAS New Orleans, flying Sikorsky SH3A, anti submarine helicopters. In summer, when school was out I attended extra
drills with the reserve unit and signed up for all the extra training and special
schools I could get. As a result I made $3400 my first year as a school
teacher and twice that much from the reserves. I bought 100 acres of
pasture land in the Pearl River swamp and leased 92 acres of land from Sue's brother,
James D Freeny, and bought 50 cows with calves. I was in the cow
business! For the next few years all my spare time was spent fixing fence,
chasing cows, cutting, raking and baling hay and all the other things that go
with being a cattle farmer. The next year I taught Biology at Kosciusko
High School and cut my commute to 27 miles each way. The third year I got
a job at Carthage High School, just 5 miles away, but I wasn't learning to like
dealing with obnoxious kids. When the school year ended in 1969, I got
a job with Petroleum Helicopters, Inc in Lafayette, LA, flying helicopters
in the offshore oil fields of the Gulf of Mexico. We continued to live
in Freeny, MS because my work schedule was 7 days on and 7 days off, so I drove
300+ miles to work one week and back home the next week. My first job, out
of training, was with Gulf Pipeline Co. in Venice, LA. I arrived just
in time for hurricane Camille, the worst hurricane to hit the LA and MS coasts
in history. I was flying a Bell G4, with a top speed of 80MPH. As we were evacuating the helicopters, we were flying
into 50MPH winds so all the highway traffic was passing us. We ended
our flight in Monroe, LA where we watched on TV as the winds and tides carried
SE LA out to sea. For the next few months I was flying around what was
left of Venice, while they worked to rebuild the pumping stations and other facilities
which had, literally, been washed out to sea. Go to Next Page |