[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 118 (Tuesday, July 11, 2023)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E658]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          RECOGNIZING VIVIAN LITCHARD'S SERVICE TO HER NATION

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                          HON. DEBBIE DINGELL

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 11, 2023

  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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