What follows is the result of a walk in the park on the warm and sunny afternoon we enjoyed here yesterday. I stopped for a photograph by a statue, and thereby hangs a tale!
Halliburton is a dirty word these days. Not many can find a good thing to say about the company, perhaps for very good reason. It was not always so though, and nowhere is it more apparent than in this small Oklahoma town where Erle P. Halliburton established the headquarters of his first company in 1919.
One of the inscriptions on his statue (left) reads
"Erected 1993, in memory of a manwho left an indelible impression on Duncan and Stephens County. He touched the lives of many people, no only as the county’s largest employer, but as a perpetually inquisitive person whose technical inspirations became legends in the oil industry around the world. His deep and abiding concern for the welfare of the people of this area and is remembered fondly"
I found Mr Halliburton's birth date in the extract which follows below. He was born on
22 September 1892, near Memphis, Tennessee. (No time known).
He had Sun, Saturn and Moon in Libra at 00*, 2* and 18* respectively (12 noon chart). Mercury in Virgo, Venus at 14* Leo and Mars at 9* Aquarius. Jupiter at 22* Aries. Pluto and Neptune at 9* and 11* Gemini. Uranus 4* Scorpio.
Sun conjunct Saturn may account for many of the characteristics highlighted in the extract which follows. It's said that this aspect can indicate the "self-made man" who has succeeded through sheer hard work and determination. An abundance of Air and positive polarity in his chart would have endowed him with an agile mind - quick in thought and determined in action.
There is probably a"Mystic Rectangle" configuration in his chart (depending on birth time) consisting of two oppositions Mars/Venus and Moon/Jupiter with trines and sextiles joining these Air and Fire planets. Kevin B.Burk, astrologer, says this about mystic rectangle configurations:
"Once an individual has integrated a Mystic Rectangle, it represents a core of strength for them, and a solid foundation that can be a great gift in handling whatever else life throws at them."
The generational Pluto/Neptune in Gemini conjunction is trine Mars in inventive Aquarius. Neptune is thought to be connected to oil, so this fits well.
A short extract from Dan Briody's book
"The Halliburton Agenda: The Politics of Oil and Money"
"Before there was a $13 billion company, before the World Wars and the Texas oil boom, before there were pet presidents and vice presidents, campaign contributions and gov ernment contracts, union busting and sanction dodging, there was simply a man, fiercely struggling to escape poverty, doggedly pursuing his piece of America's manifest destiny. At the time of his birth, September 22, 1892, in a small farming town on the outskirts of Memphis, Tennessee, the name Erle Palmer Halliburton stirred no national emotion. It held no political intrigue. It had no impact on government or business. It was only the name of one of five sons of Edwin Gray Halliburton, an anonymous jack-of-all-trades, who would not live to see Erle's thirteenth birthday. Halliburton, as a name, meant virtually nothing to anyone outside of Henning, Tennessee. But Erle Halliburton was determined to change all of that.
As a young boy, Erle Halliburton showed a natural inclinaion toward mechanics, often dismantling and reassembling devices for pure recreation. While boys his age in Henning were playing with toy trucks in sand boxes, Erle was tinkering with gears and repairing simple machines. His curiosity drove him to understand how things worked. He was an excellent student, completing both elementary and high school courses over an eight-year span by age fourteen. Yet, even then, Erle Halliburton was uninterested in the idle trappings of youth. In what would become one of his trademark characteristics, he was intensely focused on higher aims.
After his father passed away in 1904, the Halliburton family was left with little money and even less opportunity. Two years later, hopelessly impoverished at age fourteen, Erle decided it was time he left home and pursued his fortunes elsewhere.
Diminutive in stature at just 5 foot 5 inches, the future of the Halliburton clan was resting on Erle's narrow shoulders, the new man of the house. But he brimmed with confidence, promising his family he would not return to Henning until he had pocketed a million dollars, a claim that no one could have taken seriously at the time. Underestimating Erle Halliburton would be a mistake that many of his contemporaries would repeat over the years, for as author and Texas historian J. Evetts Haley put it, Halliburton was "fired by the stern disciplines of hunger and want."
Alone, directionless, and penniless, Halliburton embarked on a worldwide journey that would take him from Brooklyn to Manila, working dozens of jobs as varied as driving a locomotive to selling automatic stokers. At age eighteen, he joined the U.S. Navy and received the first formal training of his young life, serving two tours and working engineering and hydraulics before leaving the service in 1915. The work suited Halliburton's mechanical mind, and he ultimately ended up in Los Angeles, running a pressure irrigation project for the Dominguez Irrigation Company, pulling down $100 a month.
After nine years of wanderlust and job-hopping, Erle Halliburton found the oil industry."...........................................
Halliburton is a dirty word these days. Not many can find a good thing to say about the company, perhaps for very good reason. It was not always so though, and nowhere is it more apparent than in this small Oklahoma town where Erle P. Halliburton established the headquarters of his first company in 1919.
One of the inscriptions on his statue (left) reads
"Erected 1993, in memory of a manwho left an indelible impression on Duncan and Stephens County. He touched the lives of many people, no only as the county’s largest employer, but as a perpetually inquisitive person whose technical inspirations became legends in the oil industry around the world. His deep and abiding concern for the welfare of the people of this area and is remembered fondly"
I found Mr Halliburton's birth date in the extract which follows below. He was born on
22 September 1892, near Memphis, Tennessee. (No time known).
He had Sun, Saturn and Moon in Libra at 00*, 2* and 18* respectively (12 noon chart). Mercury in Virgo, Venus at 14* Leo and Mars at 9* Aquarius. Jupiter at 22* Aries. Pluto and Neptune at 9* and 11* Gemini. Uranus 4* Scorpio.
Sun conjunct Saturn may account for many of the characteristics highlighted in the extract which follows. It's said that this aspect can indicate the "self-made man" who has succeeded through sheer hard work and determination. An abundance of Air and positive polarity in his chart would have endowed him with an agile mind - quick in thought and determined in action.
There is probably a"Mystic Rectangle" configuration in his chart (depending on birth time) consisting of two oppositions Mars/Venus and Moon/Jupiter with trines and sextiles joining these Air and Fire planets. Kevin B.Burk, astrologer, says this about mystic rectangle configurations:
"Once an individual has integrated a Mystic Rectangle, it represents a core of strength for them, and a solid foundation that can be a great gift in handling whatever else life throws at them."
The generational Pluto/Neptune in Gemini conjunction is trine Mars in inventive Aquarius. Neptune is thought to be connected to oil, so this fits well.A short extract from Dan Briody's book
"The Halliburton Agenda: The Politics of Oil and Money"
"Before there was a $13 billion company, before the World Wars and the Texas oil boom, before there were pet presidents and vice presidents, campaign contributions and gov ernment contracts, union busting and sanction dodging, there was simply a man, fiercely struggling to escape poverty, doggedly pursuing his piece of America's manifest destiny. At the time of his birth, September 22, 1892, in a small farming town on the outskirts of Memphis, Tennessee, the name Erle Palmer Halliburton stirred no national emotion. It held no political intrigue. It had no impact on government or business. It was only the name of one of five sons of Edwin Gray Halliburton, an anonymous jack-of-all-trades, who would not live to see Erle's thirteenth birthday. Halliburton, as a name, meant virtually nothing to anyone outside of Henning, Tennessee. But Erle Halliburton was determined to change all of that.
As a young boy, Erle Halliburton showed a natural inclinaion toward mechanics, often dismantling and reassembling devices for pure recreation. While boys his age in Henning were playing with toy trucks in sand boxes, Erle was tinkering with gears and repairing simple machines. His curiosity drove him to understand how things worked. He was an excellent student, completing both elementary and high school courses over an eight-year span by age fourteen. Yet, even then, Erle Halliburton was uninterested in the idle trappings of youth. In what would become one of his trademark characteristics, he was intensely focused on higher aims.
After his father passed away in 1904, the Halliburton family was left with little money and even less opportunity. Two years later, hopelessly impoverished at age fourteen, Erle decided it was time he left home and pursued his fortunes elsewhere.
Diminutive in stature at just 5 foot 5 inches, the future of the Halliburton clan was resting on Erle's narrow shoulders, the new man of the house. But he brimmed with confidence, promising his family he would not return to Henning until he had pocketed a million dollars, a claim that no one could have taken seriously at the time. Underestimating Erle Halliburton would be a mistake that many of his contemporaries would repeat over the years, for as author and Texas historian J. Evetts Haley put it, Halliburton was "fired by the stern disciplines of hunger and want."
Alone, directionless, and penniless, Halliburton embarked on a worldwide journey that would take him from Brooklyn to Manila, working dozens of jobs as varied as driving a locomotive to selling automatic stokers. At age eighteen, he joined the U.S. Navy and received the first formal training of his young life, serving two tours and working engineering and hydraulics before leaving the service in 1915. The work suited Halliburton's mechanical mind, and he ultimately ended up in Los Angeles, running a pressure irrigation project for the Dominguez Irrigation Company, pulling down $100 a month.
After nine years of wanderlust and job-hopping, Erle Halliburton found the oil industry."...........................................
I'm tempted to add "the rest is history". I wonder whether Erle P. Halliburton would approve of what his company has become ?
His company is a prime mover and shaker in the Military Industrial Complex.
ReplyDeleteThe U.S. Department of Defense, headquartered in the Pentagon, is one of the most massive organizations on the planet, with net annual operating costs of $635 billion, assets worth $1.3 trillion, liabilities of $1.9 trillion and more that 2.9 million military and civilian personnel as of fiscal year 2005.
I am a 2 tour Vietnam Veteran who recently retired after 36 years of working in the Defense Industrial Complex on many of the weapons systems being used by our forces as we speak.
It is difficult to convey the complexity of the way DOD works to someone who has not experienced it. This is a massive machine with so many departments and so much beaurocracy that no president, including Bush totally understands it.
Presidents, Congressmen, Cabinet Members and Appointees project a knowledgeable demeanor but they are spouting what they are told by career people who never go away and who train their replacements carefully. These are military and civil servants with enormous collective power, armed with the Federal Acquisition Regulation, Defense Industrial Security Manuals, compartmentalized classification structures and "Rice Bowls" which are never mixed.
Our society has slowly given this power structure its momentum which is constant and extraordinarily tough to bend. The cost to the average American is exhorbitant in terms of real dollars and bad decisions. Every major power structure member in the Pentagon's many Washington Offices and Field locations in the US and Overseas has a counterpart in Defense Industry Corporate America. That collective body has undergone major consolidation in the last 10 years.
What used to be a broad base of competitive firms is now a few huge monoliths, such as Halliburton, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and Boeing.
Government oversight committees are carefully stroked. Sam Nunn and others who were around for years in military and policy oversight roles have been cajoled, given into on occasion but kept in the dark about the real status of things until it is too late to do anything but what the establishment wants. This still continues - with increasing high technology and potential for abuse.
Please examine the following link to testimony given by Franklin C. Spinney before Congress in 2002. It provides very specific information from a whistle blower who is still blowing his whistle (Look him up in your browser and you get lots of feedback) Frank spent the same amount of time as I did in the Military Industrial Complex (MIC) but in government quarters. His job in government was a similar role to mine in defense companies. Frank's emphasis in this testimony is on the money the machine costs us. It is compelling and it is noteworthy that he was still a staff analyst at the Pentagon when he gave this speech. I still can't figure out how he got his superior's permission to say such blunt things. He was extremely highly respected and is now retired.
http://www.d-n-i.net/fcs/spinney_testimony_060402.htm
The brick wall I often refer to is the Pentagon's own arrogance. It will implode by it's own volition, go broke, or so drastically let down the American people that it will fall in shambles. Rest assured the day of the implosion is coming. The machine is out of control.
If you are interested in a view of the inside of the Pentagon procurement process from Vietnam to Iraq please check the posting on this blog entitled, "Odyssey of Armaments"
http://rosecoveredglasses.blogspot.com/2006/11/odyssey-of-armaments.html
On the same subject, you may also be interested in the following sites from the "Project On Government Oversight", observing it's 25th Anniversary and from "Defense In the National Interest", inspired by Franklin Spinney and contributed to by active/reserve, former, or retired military personnel. More facts on the Military Industrial Complex can be gleaned from "The Dissident" link, also posted below:
http://pogo.org/
http://www.d-n-i.net/top_level/about_us.htm
http://dissidentnews.wordpress.com/2007/01/30/the-military-industrial-complex-and-the-business-of-war/
Thank you, Rosecovered Glasses for your very informative comment - it is good to hear these things from someone with personal experience.
ReplyDeleteYour comment brings the subject of my blog entry right into the 21st century.
I'll be interested to follow the links you provide, and hope others will do so too.
It's sad that things have come to the point they have, and let's hope that a turning point will occur soon.