Recognizing Vivian Litchard's Service to Her Nation

Floor Speech

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Mrs. DINGELL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Vivian Litchard, a resident of Ypsilanti, Michigan on the occasion of her 100th birthday. Her lifetime of service to her family and to her Nation is worthy of commendation.

Raised right down the road in Belleville, Vivian and many other young women began working at the Willow Run Bomber Plant in Ypsilanti, Michigan in February of 1942. Eighteen years old and fresh out of high school, the women of the Sewing Department worked 54 hours a week hand sewing the covers of the B-24 Liberator bombers' ailerons, rudders, and elevators. It took a couple months for her to see the first completed bomber roll off the line, but soon the Willow Run Bomber Plant would be producing a completed plane every hour. After the war ended, most everyone was sent home. Shortly thereafter, the plant was sold and became the Kaiser Frazer car factory. Vivian said ``I realized that I had grown up at the bomber plant in the 3\1/2\ years that I worked there'' and when Kaiser Frazer asked many of the wartime plant workers to come back, Vivian answered the call by driving the cars off the line and parking them in the lot.

After the war, Vivian met and married her husband, Lyle, who served in the Signal Corps during the war in North Africa, Sicily, and Italy. Together they had a full and extraordinary life. They raised three children and traveled the world, with the only continent they failed to visit being Antarctica. Their legacy now includes six grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren, and two great-great-grandchildren. After Lyle's death in 1995, Vivian visited Europe with her seniors group, specifically the beaches of Normandy. This made the war much more real to her, and she became very involved with her fellow Rosie's, including an Honor Flight out to the capital in 2016.

Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me today in celebrating the 100th birthday of Vivian Litchard, a woman who answered the call of duty at the tender age of 18 and served our country with dignity in its darkest hours. Though she may say ``It really wasn't a big deal, its just what we all did'', we know that without the skilled workers assembling B-24 Liberators in Willow Run, the result of the war may have been much different. We thank her for her service, and wish her much laughter and blessings in her 101st year. I thank Vivian.

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