quote:
The Springfield Armory, Inc. story begins with U. S. Air Force veteran Mr. Elmer Ballance of Devine, Texas. His last name is correctly spelled with two lower case letters “L.” He started his business, L. H. Gun Co., in 1960 while stationed at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. The base had a housing subdivision named Lackland Heights. To save time writing, he named his company, L. H. Gun Co. “L. H.” is an abbreviation for Lackland Heights. While serving in the Air Force, Mr. Ballance shot the M14 rifle in competition on the All Air Force High Power Team. Staff Sergeant Ballance earned U. S. Air Force Distinguished Rifleman Badge (# 42) before completing his military service in 1964. After that, he built match grade M1 Garand rifles for competition shooters. At some point, L. H. Gun Company also produced and sold .30 Caliber M1 Carbine ammunition in boxes of fifty cartridges. The U. S. Army Springfield Armory had closed down in April 1968. During the NRA National Matches at Camp Perry in the summer of 1968, the closure of Springfield Armory was a topic of discussion among the attendees including Elmer Ballance, Karl Maunz and Melvin Smith. These three men and an unnamed fourth person, held two or three meetings during August 1968 in one of the wood huts used to house civilian competitors. During one of these meetings, there was a Buckeye beer case full of Melvin Smith welded M1 Garand receivers wrapped in newspaper in the middle of the hut. It was in this meeting that Karl Maunz voiced his suggestion to name the business venture that would produce commercial M14 type rifles, “Springfield.” This was agreed to by the four men present.
Subsequent to this, Mr. Ballance began the process to acquire the name “Springfield Armory” for production of his commercial version of the M14 rifle. In late 1969, Mr. Ballance commenced work on making the dream of civilian M14 type rifles become reality. Though banks refused to fund his dream, this did not deter him. Mr. Ballance raised the funds himself. He and Melvin Smith of Valley Ordnance Co. worked together to get the equipment set up for production of the civilian receiver and complete rifles at their respective facilities in Texas and Pennsylvania. Some of the machinery and parts which Mr. Ballance purchased for the project came from the Harrington & Richardson plant in Worcester, MA.
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In January 1972 Valley Ordnance Co. (Wilkes-Barre, PA) was prepared to manufacture all major M1A components. Melvin Smith and Elmer Ballance agreed that Valley Ordnance would be responsible for the manufacture of the components parts and for maintaining an adequate supply of spare parts. Valley Ordnance would handle all quality control on receivers and any barrels that it might make. L. H. Gun Company would supervise all quality control during assembly and final testing and would have the sole right to sell M1A rifles. A large stack of customer orders had been building up. The San Antonio plant was not able to meet the demand. So, the L. H. Gun Company was forced to move to a new facility in Devine, TX. Beginning on February 03, 1972, Springfield Armory, Inc. moved its operations and inventory about thirty-five miles to Route 1 Devine, TX 78016. Mr. Ballance was receiving mail and had telephone phone service at Route 1 Box 210 Devine, Texas 78016 by no later than March 04, 1972. No M1A rifles or receivers were shipped until after an amended Federal Firearms License with the new address was issued on March 23, 1972. Before May 13, 1972, Mr. Ballance was marketing his business as Springfield Armory.
