Hi,
Anyone out there go to Brazosport College in Lake Jackson TX? They used to have a 2 year program called OMT (Ocean and Marine Technology) back in the 70s-80s til the last time the oil field went bust in the mid- eighties and they couldn;t get enough students for the classes. They used to allow you to go the 1st 2 years there at Brazosport and then finish up at Texas A & M in Galveston. This place has been great for finding connections! Hope to catch up with a few more…
Greetings, I was in the class of '82 at Brazosport College in the OMT program. I lived in Lake Jackson the first year and in lovely Clute the second. Worked as an AB in the Gulf for about ten different companies. Took the 500 GT Mate exam and got a job with Offshore Logistics. Then moved to Zapata and had great fun there as Mate on several of there anchor handling boats. Set lots of anchors and towed lots of rigs over a two year period. I delivered 2 new supply boats from Mississippi to the Ivory Coast for Zapata. Then they had a downturn like eveyone else in the late eighties and wanted to send me to Aisa. I decided make the jump to deep sea and went to work for Exxon in their tanker fleet. Worked as an AB for a couple years running from either Valdez to Panama or Panama to the East Coast. Got a little tired of that and moved from Texas to Seattle and got a job working on tugs in Puget Sound. Worked as an AB for a few months then as Mate and finally as relief Captain.
Was the OMT program the best thing I could have done with my life at the time? Yes! I was sad to hear that they shut it down. I went back four times and spoke to classes to talk about the real world and to get a free lunch.
Mike T
Hi Mike,
I probably know you but can;t remember. I started there in 1978 but was going off and on there til about 82. I could not go more than my 1st semester without running out of money so it took me that long to finish the program. I was also only about 16 when I started so doing a lot of partying during that time too.
I also went to work with Exxon (SeaRiver) from 1990-1998, up and down the West Coast to AK.
I do think OMT was the best program for starting out working offshore and cheaper then the academys for sure. Too bad we only got AB out of it. PMI now gets mates license for essentially the same thing.
Jill
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Hey Mike, It’s Tim Doyle. How the hell are ya??
Hey Fellow boat trash! Tim Doyle, class of ‘82 up here in NY. How the hell are all of ya doin’? Hey Jill, I saw you on the weather channel one year when a storm was fixin’ to come ashore in Surfside. How many more classes were there after us? I heard the program registration dropped off, was kinda sad to see it go. We learned a good bit there. Had alot of good times down at the beach. Anyone know what ever happeded to Joe Killian?
Hey Tim, I’m doing fine tho still stuck in the Gulf of Mexico. No matter what I do, I can’t find a job that keeps me sailing foreign like I enjoy the most. At least I’m working, I’m thankful for that right now. I never knew I was on the weather channel! I think there were only 2-3 more classes after us, Maybe not that many. I think they dropped the program by 1986. Not enough students when the oilfield died. I did learn alot there. A hell of a lot more useful than all these STCW classes I have had to take since then. Yeah, I had a hell of a lot of good times at the beach and I still do even tho now I am a hell of a lot more paraniod and kindof takes the fun out of it. I still live in Lake Jackson tho I have been trying to leave for years. I want to move overseas but until I can find a decent job over there or one that will take care of travel, I just can’t manage to do it. I am still trying!!! I haven;t heard anything about Joe at all. Are you still working offshore Tim? What have you been doing since OMT???
Let’s see…I didn’t find anything in ther gulf, so I came back up to NY and started playing around on smaller stuff, did some yacht deliveries, ran a boat yard, owned a sporting goods store(guns and fishin’ poles!!), went to work for BP Marine working in a black oil terminal in Newark, then I went to nursing school, and it’s been downhill ever since!
You need some coffee?