Joe Mann
REARDAN - Joe Mann lived in Reardan scaling church steeples and overcoming broken collar bones in football games because he didn't want to sub out before graduating from the high school in 1941.
He died at age 22 making the ultimate sacrifice in World War II, jumping on a grenade at age 22 to protect his companions from a German attack in 1944.
He posthumously received the highest war decoration for his highest sacrifice, the Medal of Honor, in 1945.
Now, his family ranch north of town is being designated a historical marker during a ceremony Sept. 18, 2020.
As a student, Mann, a.k.a. "Tiger," was on the football, tennis and debate teams.
"He was well-liked," Mann's nephew, Byrne Bennett, said. "He would help the widows out in town. He would go and do yard work for them and chop wood for them."
Bennett lives in Reardan with his wife, Denise, and is nearing completion on a historical fiction book based in fact called "A Greater Destiny" that is based on Mann's life and sacrifice.
Bennett related that Mann broke his collarbone in a football game and refused to come out of the game despite the injury.
"It was kind of a foreshadowing of his (death)," Bennett said.
Mann's life goal was to become a pilot like two of his brothers (he was one of nine children), but flunked his physical because of a metal plate in his shoulder that was inserted as a result of the broken collarbone.
His second choice was para-trooping, and he enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1942 in the 101st Airborne Division after working for Boeing in Seattle for a year.
Mann went to train in Camp Toccoa, where the "Band of Brothers" of television and historical fame also trained.
"He had a particular sergeant who hated his guts," Bennett said. "The word was because they couldn't break Joe down ... he got Joe transferred out of the 506th (Parachute Infantry Division) kind of in disgrace to the 502nd, where he won the Medal of Honor."
Supposedly, Mann told a fellow soldier after getting kicked out of the 506th, "'you haven't heard the last from me,'" Bennett related.
Mann was in Europe when the Allies invaded Normandy, but was in the hospital after sustaining an injury during the final training for the invasion.
"His first battle was September 17 in Holland," Bennett said.
Bennett investigated Army reports from that trip to Holland, which was Operation Market Garden. He said according to those reports, Mann was at a bridge with a lieutenant, when they noticed a German guard circling them unbeknownst.
Mann reportedly volunteered to knife the guard, but his lieutenant declined, fearing enemy attention. Mann later went back with a bazooka, and may have shot "six to 15" German soldiers before he was shot four times.
Mann then volunteered to stand watch in the middle of the night despite needing serious medical attention.
"Supposedly, he turned morphine down," Bennett said.
When the Germans staged an attack the next morning, a live grenade was thrown. Mann slipped out of his sling, jumped on the grenade and subsequently died in his lieutenant's arms.
"He had nothing left to give but his body," Bennett said.
Fellow soldiers then immediately surrendered, saying Mann's death had taken away their will to continue the operation.
Mann received the Medal of Honor, as well as a Bronze Star and Purple Heart.
"I think he was passionate about what he did," Bennett said when asked about Mann's personality traits. "Impulsive, maybe. He was a risk-taker...but he was very principled. He was known to stand up to bullies at school."
One day as a youth, Mann scaled the side of Emmanuel Lutheran Church to place a cross on the steeple. He evidently had a reputation as being able to "fix anything," Bennett added.
"Apparently his car broke down on the way from Reardan to Spokane in 1939," Bennett said. "He stopped and hitched a ride into Spokane and bought a transmission and replaced it on the highway and kept going."
He also had an unidentified romantic interest. Bennett said that Mann sent a photo home with a woman identified as his fiancée, but didn't give a name. The family has never found that woman's name or information.
"He may have met her while working for Boeing immediately after high school, or while in the Army, either in the US or England before he fought in Holland," Bennett said.
Reardan hosted Joe Mann Day years later in 1972, which Bennett attended and remembers.
"There was another Medal of Honor recipient who also attended that and was the most decorated soldier in Vietnam," Bennett said, referring to Joe Hooper. "It was a big deal. The whole town turned out."
Hooper grew up in Moses Lake and wrote a term paper on Mann. Mann then became Hooper's "hero," according to Bennett, and enlisted in the 101st Airborne Division, as Mann had done.
After winning the Medal of Honor, Hooper attended an annual event in Holland in Mann's honor. Hooper then scaled Mann's monument and placed his own Medal of Honor on the monument.
"He said he was the reason that he won the Medal of Honor, because Joe (Mann) inspired him so much," Bennett recalled.
Mann is considered a national hero in Holland, "but he's unknown here, basically," Bennett said. "He was one of only two Medal of Honor recipients in World War II in the 101st Airborne Division."
The historical marker going on the Mann family ranch north of town is being sponsored by the Jonas Babcock chapter of Daughters of the American Revolution. There are four chapters in the Spokane area.
"Every year we put up a historical marker to a person who has made a difference in our community," said Rae Anna Victor, vice regent of the Jonas Babcock chapter.
Victor said there will be an honor guard from Fairchild Air Force Base at the Sept. 18 event, and Bennett was asked to speak about Mann's life. A prayer and pledge of allegiance, likely led by Mayor Gail Daniels, will be conducted, and the marker will be unveiled.
The dedication is scheduled for 2 p.m. at the Mann family ranch on Tramm Road.
Drew Lawson can be reached at [email protected].
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