By: Fred S. Holmes, 2009-2010 AESC President
May/June 2010

The late Eddie Chiles, founder and CEO of The Western Company of North America, a very large service company in the oil industry with 5,000 employees, had a lot to say about government’s intervention and control of our lives.

Fred S. Holmes, 2009-2010 AESC President, Key Energy Services, Taft, California

In 1970, Eddie started an anti-Big Government movement that included radio commercials playing twice daily on 465 radio stations in 14 western and midwestern states. The commercials would say: “I’m Eddie Chiles and I’m mad. I’m sad for the Americans who are trying to raise a family and trying to buy a home when the liberals in Washington are spending more and more to destroy the American dream.” During Eddie’s “I’m Mad” campaign, if you agreed with Eddie and you were mad too, you would say: “I’m mad too, Eddie!” There were 210,000 “I’m mad too Eddie” stickers put on hard hats and vehicle bumpers.

I remember those ads and I fully supported Eddie’s form of protest. I had one of his “I’m mad too, Eddie” bumper stickers on my truck and 30 years later “I’m still mad, Eddie!” I’m mad at the government for continuing to destroy the American dream. The dream is still alive but is badly wounded. What can we do to heal our country and put the American dream within reach of her people once again? What can we do to bring our country back to what our forefathers envisioned so long ago? We all need to “get mad” in a politically and professional way. We all need to be involved in Washington, D.C. and restore the United States back to where each American can reach his/her dream. Some 30 years later, I just want to say once again: Thank you Eddie.

On April 19, AESC members, along with our lobbyist, attended the AESC “fly in” to Washington, D.C. There we “Walked the Halls of Congress” and visited Senators and Representatives. We shared with them our wants, concerns and desires of the AESC and the oil service industry.
This article would not be complete without talking about safety. Safety should always be a priority. Everything concerning safety should be shared. This is the least we can do if it will keep someone from getting hurt. We must use every resource available to prevent accidents and eliminate potential safety risks.

I am aware of a very serious accident that occurred in the U.S. oil industry last year. Due to threat of litigation; the details, investigation and possible solution to preventing this accident were never made public. Today, about a year later, I received via e-mail from Canada what is called a “Safety Alert” concerning an accident. This accident, and subsequent investigation and solution to preventing the accident, is a carbon copy of the accident from a year ago in the U.S. If the information on the U.S. accident from a year ago could have been shared worldwide then, it is very probable that the second accident in Canada might have been prevented. Through our trade organizations and safety organizations, a system needs to be developed to collect information on accidents and distribute them across the four corners of the earth. Working safely and applying what others have learned the hard way is far better than learning about accidents first hand. Please remember, safety is a process not a program.