Anton J. “Tony” Janek, Jr., aged 25, was born in West, McLennan County, Texas and after graduating from the Treadwell School, he assisted his father in farming until the time he entered the Air Force in June, 1941. He served in the US Air Corps as a Technical Sergeant and Crew Chief of an aircraft during World War II.

As a mechanic in the Air Force, Sgt. Janek served in Africa, India, and China. On December 10, 1944, he was reported “missing in action over China.” For one year the War Department entertained the hope that he survived and that information would be revealed dispelling the uncertainty of his absence. It was not until thirteen months later that the plane wreckage in which Sgt. Janek and three others died was discovered. Sgt. Janek and others died in a plane crash in China and is now buried in a common burial in the Chattanooga National Cemetery, Chattanooga, Hamilton County, Tennessee, USA.

He was one of over 2000 Americans who lost their lives defending China from their Japanese invaders from 1941-1945. He is commemorated on the The Monument to the Aviation Martyrs in the War of Resistance Against Japan in Nanjing, China.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com