Jimmy Bryant lost his arm in Vietnam and carries a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star from his service, and this past July, at home, he and his wife Florence spent four days calling heat and air companies for help after their decades-old air conditioning system slowly stopped blowing cool air before it quit altogether. Some of those companies wanted between $150 and $200 just to inspect the failing unit. Then Jimmy called a veteran-owned AC company, and everything changed.
That company was AccuTemp Heating and Air Conditioning, owned by Austin Ballard, a fellow veteran who served in the Army Guard from 2001 to 2006 and was stationed in Sulfur. According to KFOR, Ballard offered to visit the Bryant residence that same day after Jimmy's call came in. When he arrived and saw the state of the couple's aging system, and learned of Jimmy's service, Ballard decided to treat the fix as a veteran-to-veteran act of help rather than a standard service call.
Florence Bryant told the station that their air conditioner had been struggling for a while, slowly losing its ability to blow cool air until it stopped working entirely. The timing could not have been worse. Oklahoma City was in the grip of a severe heat dome through July and August, with daily highs reaching up to 108 degrees, tying historic local records, according to The Washington Post. The National Weather Service warns that heat index values above 105 degrees significantly raise the risk of heat exhaustion and heatstroke, especially for elderly adults and people with preexisting health conditions — a danger that applied directly to the Bryants as their home lost its cooling. According to the National Weather Service's Oklahoma City heat-wave data, the city's all-time highest temperature is 110 degrees. According to the Oklahoma Department of Human Services, its energy-assistance program offers crisis, heating and cooling assistance during open enrollment periods; some households may be preauthorized, and elderly or disabled households receive priority.
A Free System Instead Of A $17,000 Bill
Ballard's company ultimately did more than repair the old unit. AccuTemp fixed the Bryants' air conditioning at no charge and then installed a brand-new heat and air system for the family, also free of cost. That system would normally have cost $17,000, per the report from KFOR.
Giving away free systems is not new for Ballard's business. AccuTemp has hosted a free HVAC system contest and announced an upcoming giveaway, according to KFOR. The Bryants' new system marked another instance of a pattern KFOR describes as a company that does a lot of work for free.
Veterans Paying It Forward
Moved by Ballard's gesture, Jimmy and Florence Bryant nominated him for KFOR's Pay It 4Ward recognition, a segment sponsored by First Fidelity Bank, which has backed the program since it launched in 1995. As part of the honor, First Fidelity Bank provided $400 for the Bryants to pay forward, and the couple in turn presented that $400 to Ballard himself.
Jimmy Bryant, who served in the Army and told KFOR he was ambushed in 1970, framed the gesture in terms of the bond between service members. Ballard, for his part, described the connection between veterans as central to why he helps the way he does: “It's a badge of honor to look out for one another,” he said, according to the same KFOR report.
A Business Built On Local Giving
AccuTemp's giving has not stopped with the Bryants. In late August, the company sponsored the annual Moore War Run scholarship fundraiser in the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore and covered a $300 tab at Coffee Darling, a local coffee shop, ahead of the high school rivalry race. The company, incorporated in Oklahoma in September 2021, is associated with mechanical contractor license No. 00176437.
The Bryants' story also reflects a broader reality for Oklahoma's veteran community. More than 230,000 veterans live in the state, making up roughly 9.2% of its adult civilian population, according to U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs data. Of those, about 32.1%, or more than 109,000 veterans, receive service-connected disability compensation as of fiscal year 2023 — a population that includes wounded combat veterans like Jimmy Bryant, whose injuries date back more than five decades to his service in Vietnam. The article also references the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' Supportive Services for Veteran Families grants.
