George Bourg grew up in Montegut. He dropped out of high school at 16 and began work with Texaco as a cook's helper. In 1943, when he reached 18, he went into the service. After studying gunnery for B-17s, he was shifted to the infantry, joining the 101st Airborne as a replacement just after the Battle of the Bulge. Returning in 1946, he went back to work for Texaco in the warehouse and office of the shipyard below Montegut. In 1949 he began work as a roughneck on a drilling barge, moving up through derrickman to driller and then toolpusher. As a toolpusher, he worked in the Houma, Harvey, and New Iberia Districts in Louisiana, then in Alabama, Florida, and Mississippi. He returned to the Harvey District and retired in 1982 as field superintendent of the Lafitte field.