Reminiscences from Rodeney John Smith who spent one contract with the Ray3 and Ray 1 crews in Oman :-
At last I have found time to start my Ray Geophysical Saga!
after more than 50 years I may forget or make a mistake on my memory of employment by a large American Company!
1. I ask why is it that I JUST FOUND your Web Site after so many years? I have had access to Google since around 2002 and it was just a few days ago did I find your Robert H. Ray site.
2. I enclose/send a few documents - one is a letter from PD(O) Ltd reply to my question “what was Haima like in 1982” - (before I got married) as you will be aware Ray 1 & Ray 3 were based around the water hole/and the big rig at that time.
3. So I start, born in London 3rd May 1947, to a Father with distance family connections to Germany and the Rhineland who spoke a little German and was a Baker like my past four Grandparents. In 1958 he started a new job with the largest Scottish Distillery Diego as a Bakery adviser traveling the World (but for South Africa & Oman).
In 1960 we moved to East Africa and for five years I went to school there. I, like him (he died in 1974) found that living in Britain did not suit our outlook on life and so after attending a Trade school in Kingston upon Thames London I "told him" to find me a job abroad --- and he did.
Whilst he was in Libya during 1969 he bumped into the Ray Area Manager in Tripoli leading to my subsequent visit to Ray's London Office. But in September 1969 General Gaddafi came to power! It was Pop Spooner who sent me a ticket to be collected at London airport on Thursday 16th Oct to fly WHERE? My Mother was amazed that it was not Libya but Beirut - and my Father was in and around Damascus at the time! I stayed at the May Flower Hotel for two weeks awaiting a visa from Dick Whittington - naturally during my stay in Beirut my Father introduced me to his business contacts in Lebanon. My two weeks flew by in no time. It was heaven for me as we both liked the life - to travel, meet people and perhaps even to earn a little MONEY!
At last I flew to Oman city airport in a Fokker 27 airplane via Dubai and met Choudry (the Ray Gofer in Azaiba ) and briefly Bill Capes (I was impressed with his Australian 6-cylinder Land Rover truck & his secret garden behind his office). I had only ever seen 4-cylinder ones in Kenya!
My position was a Weight Truck Mechanic temporary posted to Ray 3 where the camp was a mess and was being rebuilt by the staff. The fleet of 6 Dodge Power Wagons and 4 weight trucks were even worse, what had I done? How could any business operate with so much rubbish? I still to this day wonder! It was here that I met Doug Tucker from Texas. I remained there for a few months - hard work, with many disasters and a need to work into the nights.
From Ray 3 I moved after a few months to Ray 1 (Party Chief was Bohanna) where I replaced a few 6-cylinder Land Rover engines with 4-cylinder ones - 2 1/4 litre size - (much better for racing up a 32% slip face). Ray 1 was generally a little better, but the Dodge Power Wagons were old and were replaced with MOL diesel pickup trucks, but we did get ONE new Dodge Power Wagon in kit form which was built on site. We even built a Dodge 500 truck from a new chassis up with additional bracing to the chassis. This was accomplished without a chuck key for the drill, all holes were burnt with a cutting torch! Life was good for me. I visited the motor vehicle spares trailer only to find that I could (and did) build 7 gear boxes from spares for only 6 vehicles on the crew. In my opinion it was the only answer when the second gear would not stay in - a gear box could be changed within an hour or so before dinner & repaired the following day.
4. (January the 1st 1970) we had a camp move to Qura somewhere eastwards from Haima. It was a 2-day journey by road. At some point the following year whilst watching a film we received a fly past of an airplane shooting bullets at the screen - which was being projected onto the side of a caravan! The plane came from Yemen or Dhofar perhaps. During this time I met an Observer called "Paul" from Texas, Mario Bulushy from Italy who had been with Ray since Egypt and spoke REAL Arabic so he said. I met an Ex French Foreign Legion soldier based in Paris but was German. He was very quiet, but I spoke German and made conversation him. There was also an Australian Terry Groky from Perth Western Australia, who I seem to remember was so pissed that he could not plot mark a straight line across the desert.
I was living a real life as Pop Spooner had told me. I would drink one beer whilst eating a large steak originating from the Kenya highlands. It was during this period that PD(O) Ltd condemned a potato delivery and so we had no chips (French Fries) for at least three months, fresh milk and real Acetoline in bottle form was also too experienced for Ray but a Local Bedouin Welder taught me to weld with the aid of a carbine generator. Less heat is available to cut with!
5. At some point I was to go on leave via the Beirut Office where I learnt that (I HAD TURNED DOWN A NEW POST) in the Canary Islands working on a seismic boat with air guns. To this day I still wonder "who decided for me" and so, after just a few months, I was returned to England and to find another job. More the pity.
6. Upon my return home I found and accepted a job in West Africa as the Unilever Service Manager for the Bedford / Vauxhall agents in the Biafra region of Nigeria (it was at war with itself at the time). Since which I have owned a Renault Service Centre in East Sussex, and now own an Import Catering Equipment Company (for the past 18 years or so) representing two German Manufacturers!
I survived, after my very short work experience with Ray Geophysical but at the time I had to accept that I was not meant to visit Oman!
Tripoli Libya Video from crews Ray 1 and Ray 3
Various documents of interest
