Men gathered daily at the drilling workshop in Ahmedi, Kuwait. This is where it was going to happen, if it happened in Kuwait. All questions were asked and answered from this one spot. This is where total chaos was reality in post war Kuwait. Boots, of “Boots and Coots”, said that it was like going to a rodeo every day. You never knew what was going to happen. When it did happen, it would be known at the drilling workshop first. This was the true control center. The tower of knowledge. Paul at one end, making 100 decision a minute and Carl at the other end doing the same. This is where stuff got done. If you needed anything, your answer came from here. Yes or no, right or wrong, all decisions were final and would not be over turned by anyone. When you needed something, no matter what it was, if there was one in Kuwait, Bob Billups knew where it was and how to get it. (Bob Billups was a good friend and great man, we lost him just last year.) The buck stopped here. These guys were the best of the best. The movers and shakers got their orders here.
Dave, our resident Dept. of Defense ”DOD” dude, was in the workshop helping to plan the sweeping and clearing of locations of mines and munitions before the team of fire fighters arrived on location. We had 738 wells on fire, at least that’s how many Red said that we had. All of them must be cleared by the DOD dude before moving in to control the wells.
Bobby Joe Cudd, Red Adair, Joe Bowden, Boots Hansen and Coots Mathews were in or had contact with the drilling workshop daily. Anybody who was anybody had business at the drilling workshop at one time or another. These men had employees that were “real men” also. These guys were all big and strong and could get work done quicker than anyone could believe. They took the extra step to be safe and come home alive. There were already plenty of body bags to be filled. Safety First Always.
Bechtel had signs written and posted everywhere. “IF YOU DIDN’T DROP IT, DON’T PICK IT UP.” Everything was boobie trapped. There were no second chances. One of the men walked into this small porta-cabin, known as the drilling workshop, carrying a new Iraqi mortar tube that he had just found in the dessert. There were 16 occupants in this small porta-cabin. It was close quarters to say the least. The DOD dude was also there at that particular time. The man said that there was something stuck in the tube. He could get it to slide, but had not been able to remove it. As he was excitedly showing us, a live Iraqi hand grenade, with the pin already pulled and missing, slid into his hand. Luckily the DOD dude was there and helped lead this kid out the door into the parking lot so he could throw the grenade without hurting anything or anybody. It exploded by Joe Bowden’s Wild Well Control crew’s “Yellow Tank.” But that is another “Nearly True Story”. They really did paint an Iraqi Tank yellow, and hid it from the police for nearly 6 weeks before being found out. Getting drunk on homemade whiskey and leaving a big yellow tank in the middle of the main highway to Kuwait City out of diesel was not the original plan. Had the hand grenade hit the floor the next question would have been: “WHERE DO YOU WANT THE NEW DOOR!!!?”
(If that hand grenade had hit the floor, it could have crippled the firefighting efforts for months.)