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Coots Matthews was born and raised in Porter, Texas. After finishing high school in 1941, he went to work for Reed Bit Co. In 1942 Coots joined the Army Air Force. During World War II, he served in Europe as a tail gunner on B17 bombers with the 96th Bomb Group, 338 Bomb Squadron. In 1943, while flying 25 missions over Germany and France, he was awarded the distinguished flying cross, air medal, three oak leaf clusters, purple heart, and two presidential unit citations.
Coots returned to the states in early 1944 and received a medical discharge in April 1945. He worked at various jobs until he joined Halliburton in 1947 and worked his way up through the ranks to become a special tools operator.
He left in 1957 to join Myron Kinley, the pioneer oil well firefighter. It was at Kinley's that he first met Boots Hansen and Red Adair, both Kinley employees at the time. | 