Charles Graff
Moderator Emeritus
I was doing a bit of musing this morning and recalled a conversation I had in the early 1980s with a retired Colonel who was an Ordnance officer. His first posting, as a newly minted 2nd. Lt. in 1940, was to Rock Island Arsenal. As low man on the totem poll it fell to him handle the physical transfer of the 1903 rifle production equipment to Remington in 1941.
He told me that in June 1919 when Rock Island ceased production of the 1903 rifle, the main switch was pulled and everybody walked out of the facility which was padlocked when the last man had left. He said it was an spooky place that had set for decades just as it was, at the minute the switch was pulled. There were bins of parts, stacks of stocks, rifles in all stages of assembly and the work still in the machine tools. Nothing had been touched and nothing had been removed.
His job was to see that everything was crated and packed and did the paperwork for the transfer to Remington. Remington got it all, everything that was on the production line including all the stocks of parts and partially assembled rifles. I have often wondered how much of that stuff found it's way into the 1903 rifles produced by Remington.
He told me that in June 1919 when Rock Island ceased production of the 1903 rifle, the main switch was pulled and everybody walked out of the facility which was padlocked when the last man had left. He said it was an spooky place that had set for decades just as it was, at the minute the switch was pulled. There were bins of parts, stacks of stocks, rifles in all stages of assembly and the work still in the machine tools. Nothing had been touched and nothing had been removed.
His job was to see that everything was crated and packed and did the paperwork for the transfer to Remington. Remington got it all, everything that was on the production line including all the stocks of parts and partially assembled rifles. I have often wondered how much of that stuff found it's way into the 1903 rifles produced by Remington.