US AIRBORNE

Stanley Janik was born in Chicopee, Masachusetts the 31 December 1918 and was reported missing in action on February 7, 1945 and declared killed in action February 26, 1945 during the Battle of the Bulge.

His parents, William Wojciech Janik and Kathryn Katie Kozienkiewicz are immigrants from Galicia. They both worked in a factory cotton mill. The family had 4 children. Stanley had a brother, Leon and two sisters, Helen and Josephine.

He attended the West Street School in Chicopee.

From 1936 to March 1937 he was enrolled in the CCC Fort Devens, MA. Later, he was employed at the Perkins Machine and Gear Company.

May 20, 1942, he was enlisted in the Army in Springfield, MA. Pfc Stanley Janik completed his basic training at Camp Croft, South Carolina in August 1942. Then he volunteered for paratrooper.

He joined Company F of the 507th PIR and won his wings paratroopers at Fort Benning, Georgia. With the Company F, Stanley Janik participated in the invasion of Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge.

During the fighting along the Our River near Dasbourg , February 7, 1945 , Pfc Janik was missing in action. Later, February 26, 1945, he was confirmed as killed in combat.

He was first buried in Luxembourg before that his body was repatriated. It now rests in Mater Dolorosa Cemetery in South Hadley, Massachusetts.