欧宝娱乐

“Some read to remember the home they had left behind, others to forget the hell that surrounded them. Books uplifted their weary souls and energized their minds鈥ooks had the power to sooth an aching heart, renew hope for the future, and provide a respite when there was no other escape.”
― Molly Guptill Manning

“Something that once had importance might be forgotten by most people but because millions of people once knew it, a force is present that can be harnessed. There might be so much significance attached to a song, for example, or a fact, that it can鈥檛 die but only lies dormant, like a vampire in his coffin, waiting to be called forth from the grave once again. There is more magic in the fact that the first mass worldwide photo of the Church of Satan was taken by Joe Rosenthal 鈥� the same man who took the most famous news photo in history 鈥� the flag-raising at Iwo Jima. There鈥檚 real occult significance to that 鈥� much more than in memorizing grimoires and witches鈥� alphabets. People ask me about what music to use in rituals 鈥� what is the best occult music. I鈥檝e instructed people to go to the most uncrowded section of the music store and it鈥檚 a guarantee what you鈥檒l find there will be occult music. That鈥檚 the power of long-lost trivia. I get irritated by people who turn up their noses and whine 鈥榃hy would anyone want to know that?鈥� Because once upon a time, everyone in America knew it. Suppose there鈥檚 a repository of neglected energy, that鈥檚 been generated and forgotten. Maybe it鈥檚 like a pressure cooker all this time, just waiting for someone to trigger its release. 鈥楬ere I am,鈥� it beckons, 鈥業 have all this energy stored up just waiting for you 鈥� all you have to do is unlock the door. Because of man鈥檚 stupidity, he鈥檚 neglected me to this state of somnambulism 鈥� dreaming the ancient dreams 鈥� even though I was once so important to him.鈥� Think about that. A song that was once on millions of lips now is only on your lips. Now what does that contain? Those vibrations of that particular tune, what do they evoke, call up? What do they unlock? The old gods lie dormant, waiting.”
― Anton Szandor LaVey, The Secret Life of a Satanist: The Authorized Biography of Anton LaVey

“Whenever a soldier needed an escape, the antidote to anxiety, relief from boredom, a bit of laughter, inspiration, or hope, he cracked open a book and drank in the words that would transport him elsewhere.”
― Molly Guptill Manning

“There was reason to believe the battle for Iwo Jima would be even more ferocious than the others, reason to expect the Japanese defender would fight even more tenaciously.

In Japanese eyes the Sulfur Island was infinitely more precious than Tarawa, Guam, Tinian, Saipan, and the others. To the Japanese, Iwo Jima represented something more elemental: It was Japanese homeland. Sacred ground. In Shinto tradition, the island was part of the creation that burst forth from Mount Fuji at the dawn of history.... the island was part of a seamless sacred realm that had not been desecrated by an invader's foot for four thousand years.

Easy Company and the other Marines would be attempting nothing less than the invasion of Japan.”
― James Bradley, Flags of Our Fathers: Heroes of Iwo Jima

“... the island had to be taken at almost any cost.”
― James Bradley, Flags of Our Fathers: Heroes of Iwo Jima

“The Army Air Force was doing its part to soften up Iwo Jima for the Marines. Beginning December 8, B-29 Superforts and B-24 Liberators had been pummeling the island mercilessly. Iwo Jima would be bombed for seventy-two consecutive days, setting the record as the most heavily bombed target and the longest sustained bombardment in the Pacific War. One flyboy on Saipan confidently told Easy Company's Chuck Lindberg, "All you guys will have to do is clean up. No one could survive what we've been dropping.”
― James Bradley, Flags of Our Fathers: Heroes of Iwo Jima

“Some optimistically hoped the unprecedented bombing of the tiny island would make the conquest of Iwo Jima a two- to three-day job. But on the command ship USS Eldorado, Howlin' Mad shared none of this optimism. The general was studying reconnaissance photographs that showed every square inch of the island had been bombed. "The Seventh Air Force dropped 5,800 tons in 2,700 sorties. In one square mile of Iwo Jima, a photograph showed 5,000 bomb craters." Admiral Nimitz thought he was dropping bombs "sufficient to pulverize everything on the island." But incredibly, the enemy defenses were growing. There were 450 major defensive installations when the bombing began. Now there were over 750. Howlin' Mad observed: "We thought it would blast any island off the military map, level every defense, no matter how strong, and wipe out the garrison. But nothing of the kind happened. Like the worm, which becomes stronger the more you cut it up, Iwo Jima thrived on our bombardment.”
― James Bradley, Flags of Our Fathers: Heroes of Iwo Jima

“Kenneth Milstead, a 2nd Platoon buddy of Mike, Ira, Franklin, and Harlon, had just dropped into a shallow foxhole he'd dug when a shell landed beside him and blew him out again. Blood streamed from the embedded fragments in his face. "I could have been evacuated," Milstead recalled, "but the Japanese had pissed me off. I went from being scared to being angry. That was the day I became a Marine.”
― James Bradley, Flags of Our Fathers: Heroes of Iwo Jima

“For most of the young boys, it had not fully sunk in yet that the defenders were not on Iwo, they were in Iwo, prowling the sixteen miles of catacombs.”
― James Bradley, Flags of Our Fathers: Heroes of Iwo Jima

“December 1944. The last Christmas for too many young boys. Then off for the forty-day sail to Iwo Jima. The boys of Spearhead had been expertly trained for ten months. They were proficient in the techniques of war. But more important, they were a team, ready to fight for one another. These boys were bonded by feelings stronger than they would have for any other humans in their life.

The vast, specialized city of men 鈥� boys, really, but a functioning society of experts now, trained and coordinated and interdependent and ready for its mission 鈥� will move out upon the Pacific. Behind them, in safe America, Bing Crosby sang of a white Christmas, just like the ones he used to know. Ahead lay a hot island of black sand, where many of them would ensure a long future of Christmases in America by laying down their lives.”
― James Bradley, Flags of Our Fathers: Heroes of Iwo Jima