Rick Tallini 

This year marks my 50th year in the explosives business. The adventure began in 1967 when I joined the United States Air Force and served as a weapons and munitions mechanic both domestically and at various overseas bases. I loaded conventional and nuclear weapons on fighter aircraft and was honorably discharged as a Staff Sergeant in 1971. I then earned a BSEE degree from the University of Lowell Mass in 1974 and went to work for Hercules Inc as a technical explosives sales representative. In the years since I have worked for Harrison Explosives, Controlled Energy Specialists, Northern Ohio Explosives and, of course, Otto Cupler Torpedo Co. In all those years I have performed explosives work in quarry, surface mining of coal, underground mining of coal and non-coal, demolition, open hearth steel mill hot furnace blasting, construction, trenching and of course oil & gas well shooting. My participation in the oil & gas Industry started in the late 1970s. I became very interested in the history of the oil & gas industry in 1985 when I purchased a controlling interest in Otto Cupler Torpedo Co, the world’s oldest oil & gas well service company.