Quote:
Originally Posted by Marty Kohler
My mom and Dad....
First Lieutenant...Pilot
33 Bombing missions over Germany in a B-24
Can you just imagine?
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i had the great privilege of running the GM transmission plant in Willow Run, MI, the original home of Henry Ford's B-24 bomber manufacturing facility. Ford built the plant in 1942 right on Willow Run Airport, and the plant produced 8628 B-24 Liberator bombers for use in WWII. GM purchased the facility in 1953 and began production of automatic transmissions there under the Hydra-Matic banner.
It was a special place, with a terrific sense of history everywhere you turned. It was my very first GM plant out of college, and it was so special when I was named Plant Manager sixteen years after I left the plant for other GM assignments.
One of the great heartbreaks of my GM career was in June of 2009 when I had to tell our 2600 employees that GM had decided that we needed to ramp down operations at Willow Run and close the plant by December of 2010. I was as crushed as our workforce, because that place had such a profound effect on my development from my first days out of college.
But we proudly ramped things down, and we were successful in ensuring that every one of those employees who wanted to remain in GM careers were able to do so.
Sorry for the ramble. I loved the place and the people.
Maybe someday I'll put that all into another book.....
Dave