April 20, 2010. The Macondo well. Gulf of Mexico, 5,000 feet of water. A crew of 126 people doing what oilfield hands do — showing up, doing the job, trusting the equipment and the man next to them.

At 9:49 PM, a blowout. Gas up the riser. Two explosions. The rig was on fire inside of minutes.

11 men didn't make it off.

They weren't executives. They weren't decision makers. They were hands. Drillers, roughnecks, operators. Guys who left their families at the house and went to work offshore because that's what they did. Same as any of us.

The Deepwater Horizon burned for 36 hours and sank on April 22nd. The well leaked on the seafloor for 87 days after that. 4.9 million barrels — 206 million gallons — into the Gulf. The largest marine spill in U.S. history.

The world watched the footage on a loop for months. The oilfield watched it different.

Their Names

Jason Anderson. Aaron Dale Burkeen. Donald Clark. Stephen Ray Curtis. Gordon Jones. Roy Wyatt Kemp. Karl Kleppinger Jr. Keith Blair Manuel. Dewey Revette. Shane Roshto. Adam Weise.

Their bodies were never found. They're still out there with the rig.