Long-time Team Member Has Interesting Career at Catoosa

Team Member Spotlight Billey Wiley

Billy Wiley has seen a lot in his nearly 45 years at the Tulsa Port of Catoosa in Catoosa, Oklahoma. Wiley started working at the port in 1976, and performed many duties throughout the years before joining the Watco team as an operator in 2017, when Watco took over stevedoring and transloading duties at the port’s main breakbulk and project cargo dock.

“I was down there one day and they said they were hiring, and I got on. Didn’t know I’d be there this long,” Wiley laughed. “The old port’s had it’s ups and downs but I’ve hung around.”

“Our bosses and all of them out there, they’re all hard workers and they’re good bosses and good people.”

Wiley got his start working in the barges, rigging steel I-beams and coils to be discharged to the dock. His time in the barges didn’t last too long, though.

“I was down in the barge, and the owner looked over the edge and said, ‘I wish somebody had their CDL (Commercial Drivers License).’ I said I had one, and he said, ‘Well get on up out of there.’ I started driving trucks for them and it kept me out of those hot barges,” Wiley said.

After that, Wiley spent the majority of his time driving, operating forklifts, and verifying the inventory of what arrives, is discharged, and loaded.

“I’ve been out there in the cold, and I’ve been out there in the heat. I’ve seen the water high enough you could step off the dock right onto the barges, and I’ve seen the water low enough for 1,500-ton barges to drag the bottom,” Wiley said. “I’ve unloaded so many barges and seen so many things come in, mostly steel coils though. We could unload one of them in about five hours. They say it takes seven or eight, but we can do it in five. A lot of those coils weigh 25,000 pounds, some of them will weigh up to 50,000. They’re about seven or eight feet tall.”

He recalled many unique events from his career, like pulling a calf from the channel, encountering a boat with a German crew, the port’s 25th anniversary celebration, seeing 3-foot carp from the dock, pulling a news van out of the mud (and getting a thank you card from the news station), and a guy who brought his goat to work.

“Somebody gave him a goat. He tied it up by the water and it started raining. The towboat people called up and said he needed to get it because the water was rising and about to drown the goat. This guy had a nice Lincoln, and he put that goat in the back seat. By the end of the day, that goat had about eaten his back seat up. He wasn’t laughing, but we sure did,” Wiley said.

Wiley plans on retiring toward the end of the month and said, “About the only bad luck I’ve had is losing my wife. I had some health problems earlier this year, and they thought it might be COVID. It was just half a cold and blood pressure, but the boys I work with sure were worried.”

Golf has been part of Wiley’s life even longer than the port, and he plans to focus more on his golf game once he retires. He started caddying at golf courses in the area in the 1960’s. Over the years, he’s caddied a lot of tournaments, including for professional golfer Nancy Lopez and country singer Billy Parker. He plays quite a bit as well.