Richard Jernigan -> RE: Spanish Gastronomy (Mar. 17 2016 23:44:59)
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ORIGINAL: estebanana They used the lagoon at Trestles to simulate a lagoon on a Japanese occupied Pacific island. He and his team built a wooden replica of the fuselage a tail of Mitsubishi Zero and planted it nose first into the lagoon to look like a Zero crash site. And subconciously this gave the viewers of the film a sense of hope that a symbol like Zero was trashed out and defeated. Never eat a trout raw, the sashimi is overrated in my humble opinion. While my father was a member of the Confederate Air Force (the name was later changed to Commemorative Air Force), instead of Zeros they flew AT-6 Texan trainers (SNJ's to the Navy) with modified wingtips to mimic the distinctive circular silhouette of the Zero's. He said they searched high and low for Zeros to put into flying condition, but couldn't come up with any. They were such a hated symbol of Japanese air power that wherever an example was encountered soon after the war, it was usually utterly destroyed by U.S. troops. Now that I think of it, I vaguely recall a photo of a fairly intact Zero, half covered by jungle growth, somewhere in the Pacific, but I never saw one on land. My buddies and I found a largely intact Zero in about 30 feet of water off the end of the runway at Roi-Namur, at the northern end of Kwajalein Atoll. We knew people who had dived Kwajalein lagoon since the beginning of scuba diving there, and no one had heard of it before. I was surprised it had been missed, but diving was generally better further from Roi. The Zero was inverted on a white sand bottom. About the only serious damage was to the vertical tail fin, which was partly torn off. Further evidence that no one knew of it was that the machine guns in the wings were still there. They would have been prized by wreck looters. There was no visible debris from damage to the cockpit, but sand had settled in around it. We couldn't tell whether the pilot had made it out or not. Back on the boat, we immediately agreed to keep quiet, until we notified the Base Commander, whose wife was an avid diver. He announced the find, along with a stern edict against looting. I haven't asked anyone about its condition lately. Further south along the west reef we found a debris field that began in deeper water and extended up onto the reef itself, maybe six feet of water at low tide. No one seemed to know about it either. Experts identified the plane as a Zero from photos of parts, but the only large pieces were from the engine and the landing gear. We looked for the guns, but never found them. We assumed someone had taken them and kept quiet about it. At my parents' house fresh sea trout were prepared Texas style, filleted if they were that big, dredged in corn meal and fried in an iron skillet. Smaller ones were gutted, the scales scraped off, and fried whole except for the head, with the skin on, until the fins were crisp. Surplus trout that weren't given away were carefully frozen, and came to the table later as trout almondine. Redfish are actually a good deal better to eat than speckled trout. My father agreed, but it was more challenging to catch trout, so that's what he went after, always with artificial lures, usually a simple chrome plated or polished bronze spoon, depending on the light and the clarity of the water. I don't think I have ever tasted any trout, salt or freshwater, as sashimi. RNJ
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