A Big, Sunburned Man with Rough Hands

and a gentle manner.

His name is Jeff Hart and five weeks ago he was drilling water wells for the US Army’s forward operating bases in Afghanistan. He reportedly is the world’s best T-130 drill operator and was asked to take on a special job.

For the last 33 days he has been standing for 16 hours a day (mostly on one leg) with one boot on the drill head of a drilling rig in the Atacama desert of Chile. “There’s so much noise, the only way to know what the drill is doing is to feel the vibration from it” he said, and late last Saturday Jeff’s size thirteen right boot told him something was happening to the drill. More than two thousand feet below in solid rock the 30 inch diameter drill was close to breaking through into a closed chamber containing 33 trapped miners, they had been there for a long 69 days.

In the next few days a short section of the hole running through unmapped chambers of the mine will be lined with steel pipe. Then, probably amid a large crowd of reporters and cameras the first miner will be strapped in a cage and hauled a third of a mile to the surface. My guess is that Jeff will not be there, and, after a few days off, he will likely be back drilling water wells for the US Army’s forward operating bases in Afghanistan.

Stay safe Jeff, I have a feeling your skills will soon be needed again somewhere in this big bad world.

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Author: Low Wattage

Expat Welshman, educated (somewhat) in UK, left before it became fashionable to do so. Now a U.S. Citizen, and recent widower, playing with retirement and house remodeling, living in Delaware and rural Maryland (weekends).

18 thoughts on “A Big, Sunburned Man with Rough Hands”

  1. Interesting blog LW, he sounds like the guy from many years who used to fly around putting out oil well fires, name was Red Adair. I met him in a bar once but did not endear myself to him as I asked him how Ginger Rodgers was getting on.

  4. Hello OMG: Do we share a timezone this week? I thought you were in DC about now?

    Red Adair was “Boots and Coots” Jeff is part of an outfit from Denver.

  6. He is a big guy, I’ll keep my remarks to myself if I run into him.
    I hit Washinton DC this coming Friday at about 13:30 hrs.

  9. I think I saw him interviewed on TV last Saturday morning. Big man indeed and gentle with it. His job was done, he said, and he moves on. Good sun-tanned post LW!

  13. Low Wattage
    Thanks for the offer but I’ll be hitting the ground running and have a lot to try and cram in in a short space of time, I’ve built a bit of wiggle room into my schedule but a lot depends on other people.

  15. Interesting blog, LW.

    Thinking about Marr’s comments reported on another post here. I wonder whether, in the days before technology brought the world into everyone’s living rooms, these sort of ‘accidents’ would have been dealt with in the same way. Not that I’m cynical, of course…

    … so three cheers for Jeff Hart and the technology that keeps the world’s eyes on these incidents.

  16. Howzit LW

    Brilliant, did I hear that he or the drilling company are from Virginia? Not enough has been reported on the drilling rig (was it brought in from the US?) and the operator, thanks for the info.

  17. G’Morning Soutie: Thank you. I have only read a little piece in the local paper here about the drilling. Jeff Hart was drilling the “plan B” hole, there were three holes being drilled at the mine. Both the A and the C holes could not be held straight enough to reach the miners. The man lives in Denver, the drills are made in Pennsylvania and the rig in Texas. I think the rig was in Chile someplace.

    Here’s a little piece I just found about the drilling.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/09/jeff-hart-chile-mine-dril_n_757060.html

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