Just thought some folks might like to read this. grimmye
By Jim Sponseller
>
>
> Most of the time, this column takes on a light-hearted attitude. Today,
> it's a heavy-hearted one.
>
> It’s heavy-hearted because I’m both disappointed
> and worried about the way that so many car buyers are ignoring the
> products of America’s automobile manufacturers. Yes, I know all the
> arguments pro and con. The reasoning for buying from foreign manufacturers
> abound in letters to the editors and columns by auto writers in our
> newspapers and magazines.
>
> Up front, I should admit that I worked for two U.S. auto manufacturers in
> addition to several decades in the newspaper trade. The first was
> Kaiser-Frazier, back in 1953. I had worked there only six months when they
> locked the doors of the huge plant in Ypsilanti because of the lack of
> sales. I later had a stint with General Motors that lasted longer. I
> personally believe that most of the models produced by American car makers
> are just as good as those offered by foreign companies. Many are even
> better.
> But besides the fact that I have been completely satisfied with the cars
> produced by American-based companies, one of my main reasons for never
> considering the purchase of a foreign vehicle is quite different than most
> Americans would think about. Here it is:
>
> Not until I went to work for the Fisher Body Division of GM did I realize
> what an impact our auto companies had in the defense of our country. I had
> heard of Detroit being called the “Arsenal of Democracy” but really didn’t
> appreciate the meaning of it until I thumbed through the historical files
> of Fisher Body. One of my many jobs was to keep them up to date. Fisher
> Body was the division that produced the bodies for nearly every GM model
> since they started in 1908 until the division was merged into other units
> in 1984.
>
> While the “Arsenal of Democracy” tag wasn’t applied until World War II,
> Fisher Body’s involvement started during the first World War. Soon after
> the U.S. entered the war in 1917, the Army granted a contract to Fisher
> Body for the largest order every written in this country for airplanes.
> Although Fisher Body had never before made a single airplane, it produced
> the first one 48 days after taking over a government-owned building near
> downtown Detroit (later used to assemble Cadillac car bodies.) It
> eventually reached 40 a day. By the time the war for the U.S. ended, the
> plant had assembled 2,005 planes.
>
> Within months after Pearl Harbor, Detroit’s auto industry shut down its
> assembly lines and converted to the tools of war. Ford Motor was soon
> turning out such items as aircraft and tank engines and gun mounts. It was
> most famous for its vast Willow Run plant where 8,685 B-24 bombers were
> produced. Chrysler converted its assembly lines to tanks, Army trucks,
> anti-aircraft guns and assemblies for B-25 medium bombers. Detroit's
> Hudson plant made sub-assemblies for the B-29 bomber and marine engines.
> Packard produced engines for fighter planes and PT boats. The hundreds of
> automotive supplier plants all became involved.
>
> I don’t have a record of the items produced by the score of other General
> Motors divisions but I discovered that its Fisher Body Division alone
> contributed a remarkable assortment of material to the war effort. Twelve
> Fisher plants were assigned for use by other GM divisions and other
> companies such as Boeing and Firestone. The remaining 13 plants, mostly in
> Michigan, tallied up production numbers such as these:
>
> Aircraft assemblies, such as wings and tail sections, were produced for
> 5,214 Mitchell B-25 bombers.
>
> In Grand Blanc, 17,213 tanks rolled off the assembly line, most of them
> the famous General Sherman.
>
> Over in the Grand Rapids plant, the assembly line produced 2,359
> anti-aircraft guns and later 550 huge 5-inch guns for the Navy's ships.
> They also shipped out over a half million high-explosive 155mm shell
> casings, plus aircraft and tank components.
>
> In plants of the Ternstedt Division of Fisher Body, a total of 293,100
> intricate gyro aircraft instruments were manufactured. The division also
> produced 1.2 million parts used in fighter plane cannons.
>
> Five Fisher east coast plants were merged into the GM Eastern Aircraft
> Division and was the source of three-quarters of the nearly 18,000 Wildcat
> and Avenger planes produced for the Navy carriers.
>
> In Cleveland, a 400 acre plant was built for assembly of wings, tail
> sections, ailerons, flaps, tail gun turrets and other parts for the huge
> B-29 bombers as well as parts for tanks and Naval guns.
>
> Also pouring out of these facilities, along with plants in Flint, Lansing,
> Detroit and Pontiac, were such items as 200,000 rocket fin s, 86,000
> droppable fuel tanks, 1,500 cowlings for Navy fighters and 9,352 huge
> crankcases for diesel engines to power Navy ships and submarines.
>
> Today, dozens of auto plants are closing.
> So are hundreds of automotive supplier plants. One can only wonder how we
> could ever gear up to fill wartime production should the need ever arise.
>
> Just what would we do, call up Japan, Germany, China, Korea or our beloved
> friends in France?
>
> All of this wartime production stuff may sound boring and trivial to most
> Americans now, but back in the 1940's it was a life and death matter for
> our troops and for the defense of our country. Back then, when I was among
> the millions of GI's serving overseas, I had no idea of how vital the
> efforts were of our auto plants and the men and women working there in
> achieving final victory. Today I do.
>
> You can call me a sentimental old geezer still living in the past, but
> I'll just keep on buying and loving the cars that best support our
> country's economy today and played a huge role in keeping it free over 60
> years ago.
>
> Oh yes, during those war years, 14,761 Fisher body employees left their
> jobs and families to serve in the armed forces. And 288 gave their lives
> to keep us free today.
>
> Buy American!
>
> Thanks for listening,
> Jim Sponseller
>
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