On 10 May 1945, Robert V. "Bob" Brashears left Alamogordo for the Pacific Theater. He went by rail to Seattle via Phoenix and Los Angeles. A 2-week trip onboard the USS Zoella Lykes via Pearl Harbor put him at his destination, Tinian Island, the home of the Enola Gay and the atomic bomb deployment mission. Upon his arrival, he introduced himself to his new 5' 7" crew chief who was with the plane "Ace of the Base" Bob had been assigned to maintain. The plane also had an ace of spades painted on the nose along with the name. His chief said "you’re just the man I need.” He went on to explain that a new B-29A with only 4 missions completed was having problems when switching from one engine to the other. The engine speed would drop 150 rpm and that was the borderline allowable or the plane was considered not flight worthy. After every mission, the flight crew wrote up their observation and the ground crew would try to fix the problem but to no avail. The crew chief started the engines and demonstrated the drop and sure enough 150 rpm was lost upon switching to the left engine. After listening to the engines, Bob said to the crew chief that the magneto timing on the left engine "sounded slow." Bob then opened up the magneto and "widened the points" without a gauge, just the amount he thought would break contact sooner thereby hopefully correcting the problem. After closing up, the crew chief restarted the engines and sure enough, the rpm did not drop even 1 rev on switching, to which the crew chief asked, "what in the heck did you do"?
The "Ace of the Base" was built in Renton, WA, and delivered to the USAAF on 6 April 1945. The new B-29A-35-BN Superfortress was assigned to the 504th Bomb Group on Tinian. The aircraft was flown from the Renton Airfield to the Marianis departing in May 1945. The Tinian Flight Crew was led by Pilot Les Urquhart with Joel Feigenbaum as the right blister gunner and Mason Brownell Fitch, a 19 year-old from Rochester, NY, as the radar operator. Mason was known as "Mase from the Ace of the Base."
The "Ace of the Base" arrived on Tinian in late May and flew missions on 1 June, 5 June, 7 June and 15 June before Bob arrived. The mission on 17 June to bomb Yokkaichi, South of Osaka, was Bob's "1st Mission" on Tinain.
The "Ace of the Base" was reclaimed at Pyote Air Force Base on 23 Jun 1954 as one of the last B-29s scrapped. The Ace sat alongside the Enola Gay at Pyote in 1946 and continued at Pyote until being called into service in the Korean War.
Click on this link for a pictorial history of the 444th on Tinian.
Dad's Plane, the Ace of the Base, was serial number 44-61551. Delivered to USAAF 6 April 1945.
Assigned to 504th Bomb Group. Named ‘Ace of the Base’ and Reclaimed at Pyote AFB, TX, on 23 June 1954.
B-29A serial number 44-61535 delivered to USAAF 31 March 1945. Dad's plane delivered 7 days later and is in the background. Dad's Plane, the Ace of the Base, was serial number 44-61551
The Renton plant was constructed on the South shore of Lake Washington and built all of the A model of the B-29. The original plant was 1.7 million square feet and built at the cost of $22.5 million. Another $2.5 million was needed to upgrade and lengthen the runways at the airport next door. This is still an operating building for assembly of 737s and 757s..
Dad took this picture of the "Enola Gay" just after the Atomic Bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945.
The list of Missions the "Ace of the Base" flew after Dad joined the Ground Crew on 16 July 1945
