Leroy James Sullivan (born June 27, 1933) is an American firearms inventor. Going by Jim Sullivan, he has designed several "scaled-down" versions of larger firearms.
Early life
Sullivan was born on June 27, 1933 in
Nome, Alaska.
Sullivan lived in
Nome until he was seven years old, concerned that World War II would spread to Alaska, Sullivan's family moved to
Seattle, Washington
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region ...
.
Education
Sullivan attended the public schools of
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
, and later in
Kennewick, Washington
Kennewick () is a city in Benton County in the U.S. state of Washington. It is located along the southwest bank of the Columbia River, just southeast of the confluence of the Columbia and Yakima rivers and across from the confluence of the ...
.
Sullivan went on to study engineering, for two years, at the University of Washington in Seattle. Aware that he was about to be drafted to fight in the
Korean War
, date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
Sullivan wanted to become an Army diver, so he left the University of Washington to attend the Sparling School of Deep Sea Diving in
Long Beach, California
Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California.
Incorporate ...
.
Military service
Sullivan served in the US Army, from 1953 to 1955,
although he was trained by the Army to be a telephone installer and repairman.
Due to his civilian training he went overseas to Korea in 1954, where he was assigned by the Army to be a diver to repair oil pipelines and other facilities damaged during the US invasion of Inchon Harbor.
Small arms designer
Sullivan is largely responsible for the
Ultimax 100
The Ultimax 100 is a Singapore-made 5.56mm light machine gun, developed by the Chartered Industries of Singapore (CIS, now ST Kinetics) by a team of engineers under the guidance of American firearms designer L. James Sullivan. The weapon is extr ...
light machine gun and the Surefire MGX. He also contributed to the
Ruger M77
The Ruger M77 is a bolt-action rifle produced by Sturm, Ruger & Company. It was designed by Jim Sullivan during his three years with Ruger. The rifle features a traditional Mauser-style two-lugged bolt with a claw extractor.
Design and feature ...
rifle,
M16,
Stoner 63
The Stoner 63 is a 5.56×45mm NATO modular weapon system. Using a variety of modular components, it can be configured as an assault rifle, carbine, top-fed light machine gun, belt-fed squad automatic weapon, or as a vehicle mounted weapon. Also ...
, and
Ruger Mini-14 rifles (scaled from the
AR-10
The ArmaLite AR-10 is a 7.62×51mm NATO battle rifle designed by Eugene Stoner in the late 1950s and manufactured by ArmaLite (then a division of the Fairchild Aircraft Corporation). When first introduced in 1956, the AR-10 used an innovative com ...
, Stoner 62, and
M14 rifle
The M14 rifle, officially the United States Rifle, Caliber 7.62 mm, M14, is an American selective fire battle rifle chambered for the 7.62×51mm NATO (.308 in) cartridge. It became the standard-issue rifle for the U.S. military in 1959, r ...
respectively).
References
1933 births
Living people
United States Army personnel of the Korean War
Inventors from Alaska
Weapon designers
Weapon design
Firearm designers
People from Nome, Alaska
People from Seattle
People associated with firearms
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