Ace Barnes from Odessa, Texas, died a few days ago. He was 96. He was the last of the 2nd generation of well control hands, a prodigy of Adair, and Boots, and Coots and Bowden, themselves direct deeedents of the first generation of oil well firefighers like Ford Alexander, Myron Kinley, Tex Thorton and Pat Patton. Today the well control profession is still doing things that Kinley taught us how to do 90 years ago.
Ace and Coots were best of buddies. I think it was because Coot's partner was dead cold serious, intense, single minded and unforgiving. He was also a genius, Boots. Maybe the smartest of them all.
But Ace could twist off and have some fun. Coots was like that, so he and Ace were like peas and carrots and whenever Coots could get Ace to go with him on a job, or to a convention, or a bar, it was a done deal. Oh my God, if you ever got a chance to hang out with the two of them you'd 'a ruptured a gut laughing so hard. Been there, man. Ace had his face burned, badly, as a child and he made the perfect oil well firefighter...Coots had some fun with how Ace got burned. Ace always went along.
The 3rd generation of oil well firefighters, the products of Red, and Joe Boweden and Boots and Coots, and Bobby Joe Cudd were men like Pat Campbell, Brian Krause, Danny Clayton, Richard Hatteburg, Raymond Henry, Joe Carpenter, David Thompson, James Tuppen and Martin Kelly. Sammy Richmond tended to all of them; whatever they needed in the way of iron, Sammy got, and rigged it up.
Everybody is gone now except Brian, Richard, James and David. James is 66 and a senior well control manager with Boots and Boots/Halliburton. He's the man, now.
The great era is coming to an end.
George Hill. Freddy Gephart, Roy Hefley. Mike Foreman, Sam Bowden, Danny Strong. Wayne Lansford. Bud Curtis. I was on the tail end of generation 3.0, little more than navel lent, but got to see 2.0 in their splendid glory. For that I am the luckiest man in the world.
Rest in peace, Ace.
Rest in Peace Ace.