After getting the logging equipment set up, it crossed my mind: 13 days to go. We had a schedule that a maximum of two weeks or 14 days in the desert would be followed by a week in Benghazi. I went to sleep that night thinking 13, 13, 13. It was still dark when Phil banged on my trailer door.

"Richard! Richard!" he was yelling. I stuck my head out and asked, "What? What?"

Phil was trying to find some notes when he said, "Richard, we got spudded right after midnight, and hell at 550 feet; we got a damn good show."

"Well, it kicked most of the mud out of the hole, and flowed gas until we pumped mud and killed it."

"I can't believe that, but catch me some samples and kill the SOB." I got dressed, and by the time I got to the rig, things were back to normal.

When I called in the report the next morning, the district geologist was as surprised as I was. We were 150 miles from the coast, so gas was pretty worthless. I figured........

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