The Guide

Thursday, October 5, 1961, page 7 (of 15)

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From Joe Mantinan It's a Tale of War Stories and Corn Flakes

By JOE C. MORRIS Correspondent Not many people know that Joe Mantinan, the well-groomed, handsome and soft-speaking administrative assistant to the City Manager of Coral Gables was born in Spain in 1918 nor that he fought in the Spanish Civil War. One day in 1936 Joe was on a ranch, belonging to one of his seven uncles, 20 miles from Barcelona, when Franco's soldiers rode up to the house, announced the news of the revolution and forced all males over 12, including Joe, to "fight for their country." He had no choice but to comply. And for three days thereafter he loaded ammunition into trucks for the rebels. Then Government forces surrounded the ammunition dump where he was working and took them all prisoner. CATTLE CAR Joe was herded into a cattle car that traveled two days and nights without food and little water. When at last it stopped he was forced to sign a loyalty oath to the government, was given a wooden gun and was declared to be a "Loyalist, fighting for his country." "Later I was issued a rifle," he said, "but the powder was so bad that two out of three bullets didn't fire. If the other side hadn't had the same trouble I wouldn't be here," he laughed. "Once a bullet from a rebel gun split my helmet but didn't have enough force to hurt my head." Revolutions are 10 times worse than war, according to Mantinan. The people are more violent, angry and destructive. Nations at war observe international laws, he says, and have intermediaries for negotiations. But in civil war brother fights against brother, family against family and there's no reason, rules or referees. TWO ESCAPES Joe fought eight months in the Spanish Revolution and twice escaped being blown up. One time his sixth sense warned him the road ahead didn't look just right. He pulled his truck to a stop but the driver behind, passed him, and in less than 50 yards hit a land mine. On another occasion, he dived from his truck into a itch just before machinegun fire ripped into the driver's seat. The quartermaster of the Loyalist Army, another of Joe's uncles, had his men scouring the country side for cattle--and for Joe. When they finally found him he was spirited away to Paris and out of danger. There he remained locked in a room for two weeks, because he had no papers, then was shipped to New York. His father, who had come to America in 1918 and became a citizen, arrived late at the pier. Failing to be met, Joe spent his first night in the USA in the Ellis Island jail. VOLUNTEERED A few days after Pearl Harbor was attacked the young Spaniard volunteered for the Army. But to be sent overseas he had to be a citizen. So, after six months in the service, he and 50 other GI's pledged allegiance to the United States in a courthouse in Columbia, S.C., and were naturalized. From the day of his induction Joe was rated a sergeant. He also lost his rating five times. "I always got busted in rest camp," he said, "but they returned my stripes each time we went back into action. "They broke me once for stealing an Arab's camel and taking a joyride into the desert during the African campaign. "Another time, my men and I had gone two weeks without cooked food and we engaged an Arab family to fix us a hot meal. "The plates were piled high with fried grasshoppers, smoked eel, and fried rabbit. The hot food was delicious and grasshoppers are 10 times better than shrimp." They were filling up fast when one of the men heard noises and went out to look. He saw the Arab kids skinning cats instead of rabbits and preparing snakes in place of eels. ARAB TROUBLE That started the trouble. And the next day when the Arab and his kids spotted them in camp the Lieutenant made them pay for the damages and the dinner. Joe took part in the invasion at Anzio Beach, the assault on Monti Cassino castle and did guard duty at Vatican City where on several occasion he talked personally with Pope Pius XII. Later, in the Poe Valley, his platoon was caught in a four-way cross fire in an open field. "I saw seven guys ahead of me get theirs and I knew I was next," he said. "After dark I dragged myself to a water-filled foxhole and waited three days for help. "Finally two teen-age medics and a captured German soldier rode up in a Jeep. The kids thought I was too far gone to bother but the German, an old hand at war, picked me up, put me on a litter and they drove me to a field station. HIP SHOT "My hip was shot away but they made another one of steel. The doctor in Italy put me in a cast at the wrong angle and it twisted my pelvis so one leg was two and a half inches longer than the other. "But I'm lucky," he added, "I had it reset here in 1950 at the Veterans Hospital and although I limp a little, I can walk." Between the end of the war and 1953 when he turned to politics Joe managed the Edgewater Beach hotel, was captain of a charter fishing boat and owned a 16-unit apartment building on Zalzeda Ave. Six years ago he married a beautiful girl named, "Beebee," who was a professional dancer before she became a beautician. They have frequent get-togethers, of friends and neighbors, in their home at 2330 SW 82nd Ave. But dinner parties never. Joe eats a bowl of cornflakes four nights a week and cottage cheese on half-a-peach the other nights. And Beebee doesn't eat dinner at all.

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