Willow Run

Got to lose your balance a little bit.

So we pull into this airport called Willow Run in Michigan.

And, dude, I was like, oh, my God.

There were 200 planes of similar or bigger size.

There's value in being close to those offices to, to coordinate, uh, that sort of thing.

But additionally, probably going back to our roots in World War II when the, we had the Arsenal of Democracy was really here in the Southeast Michigan, uh, you know, building bombers at, uh, at, uh, Willow Run, and, uh, the tank plant that was built to build Shermans, um, where the Arsenal sits now.

Um, there is a lot of talent here.

Uh, some of that is from the automotive industry.

Everybody is referencing the arsenal of democracy concept in this conversation.

Ford's Willow Run plant in Ypsilanti produced about one B-24 Liberator bomber an hour at its peak during World War II.

One bomber per hour rolled off the assembly line during its peak.

This is what most people are using as the go-to proof that when the country needs it, Detroit will step up and deliver.

And even if they did, it would take years.

If speed is important, this is a critical point to consider.

The lesson that most people seem to be taking from the Willow Run example is backwards.

The story is not that Ford amazingly retooled because the war gave them a reason to step up.

So Detroit became a powerhouse.

You had bombers out at Willow Run.

You had tanks in Detroit, in Warren.

And you had thousands and thousands, 6,000 smaller job shops making things.

And finished it.

It was called Willow Run.

I went through that plant when I went to a school up in Detroit, learned how to be a Chevrolet dealer.

And we toured it.

They had gone from building B-24 bombers to Ford products, and then Ford didn't need the plant anymore, and General Motors bought it.

and started building Citations and Skylarks and what was the Oldsmobile version? I can't remember.

But they ended up producing over 8,000 B-24 Liberator bombers at the Willow Run plant.

So it was a very good thing that they did, and it wasn't out of total willingness by Henry Ford.

Yes.

And he went and started Willow Run, and they started making bombers for the Army in World War II, and antisemitic Ford and antisemitic Lindbergh built the planes that bombed Germany into submission.

Absolutely.

So y- you can have two thoughts at once.

... s- saving the world."

By the way, and, and, and Henry Ford, he, he got nuttier as he grew older, but he did come to apologize for some of his, the statements.

Now, remember, when you go on Call Her Daddy and you make that Willow Run reference, you're not gonna get a response.

No, I don't think so.

I also knew that she didn't meet Dad until after the war, but they were married on February 15, 1947, the day after Valentine's Day.

So, since I didn't know the exact factory, I thought I'd write a song about her working at Ford's Willow Run factory.

That was the automotive connection.

Willow Run was built by Ford in 1941 specifically to churn out B-24s.

So obviously, in my song, my mom was an inspector checking out every B-24, rolling off the assembly line.

And as for getting married the day after Valentine's Day on the 15th, I figured changing it 24 hours wouldn't be a big deal.

However, everything else about the song is totally true.

And tweaking the facts doesn't change the fact that I wrote the song as a tribute to my mom, Ruth Sexton Skinner.

Terrible

... uh, to tease AJ Baime's other book that I like even more than this, but it's less about cars, which is about them building the Willow Run facility-

Yes

... to build bombers-

Ford knows how to go to war in Europe, and he points to the big factory.

Mm-hmm.

That's Willow Run, right? Like, we built this thing to crank bombers out.

Like, we know how to beat down the Europeans.