E.O. “Coots” Matthews, the passing of an era

In these politically correct times where we are afraid to use our own natural resources. And a Democratic president cynically throws a bone to conservatives and opens a few areas for offshore drilling, it's hard to imagine there was once a time when Americans were proud to search for oil all over the world.

One of the brave men who was a big part of that era passed away recently. The Houston Chronicle has the story:

E.O. “Coots” Matthews, a famed oil well firefighter and founding partner of Houston-based Boots & Coots — a company legendary for putting out some of the world’s most spectacular fires — has died at age 86.

Matthews died Wednesday of natural causes at his home in Humble.

During his 50-year career, Matthews, along with Asger “Boots” Hansen and Paul “Red” Adair, became the sooted faces of the storied “hellfighting” business, in an age when wildcat wells erupted on a regular basis.

Their exploits battling the biggest infernos in the oil patch inspired the 1968 John Wayne movie Hellfighters, and their adventures are part of the fabric of Houston’s history.

In a true roughneck-to-riches story, Matthews helped build Boots & Coots into a company with one of the most recognizable names in the oil industry.

“It was a pretty good trick,” said Jerry Winchester, president and CEO of Boots & Coots. “You start with two or three guys and a secretary and then you look up 30 years later and it’s a $200 million business with 700 employees.” [...]

As a young man Matthews joined the Air Force and served as a tailgunner in Europe during World War II. After the war he worked for Halliburton -- for a while:

Halliburton fired Matthews for allegedly crashing six company cars during his roughly 10 years with the firm. Matthews jokingly told friends the company punished him once for crashing a $700 car by making him drive a $1 million pump truck.

Thanks to a family connection, he was hired soon after by Adair to work for M.M. Kinley Co., a pioneer in well control and firefighting. That’s where Hansen and Matthews met. [...]

The trio would go on to develop firefighting and well control methods that paved the way for today’s sophisticated blowout preventer and pressure control technology, Winchester said. They figured it out through “sheer tenacity and ingenuity,” Winchester said, at a time when the industry lacked the equipment and science that now make well fires much less frequent.

As the AGW theory becomes discredited, most Americans are beginning to realize that there is nothing standing in the way of drilling for oil anywhere, except for the liberal agenda of the Democrats. Americans still possess the same drive and determination that motivated men like E.O. “Coots” Matthews. If we can fire the Social Democrats in congress this November, America can get back to work. Coots would be proud.