Wes Janson/Legends

"This is Major Wes Janson, and if you're not aware of his exploits, I'm sure he'll be delighted to give you the whole story."

- Wedge Antilles on Wes Janson

Wes Janson was a pilot for the Rebel Alliance and New Republic. He served as Wedge Antilles's gunner at the Battle of Hoth. He later went on to become a key member of both Rogue Squadron, the Rebel Alliance's most elite fighter squadron; and Wraith Squadron, the New Republic's pilot/commando unit, eventually reaching the rank of at Major after years of service. Janson continued to serve the New Republic by leading a group of volunteers during the Yuuzhan Vong War.

In addition to his pilot skills, Janson was deadly with blasters and skilled at hand to hand combat. When he wasn't fighting, Janson believed in having fun today, because tomorrow might not come, and was known for his practical jokes and witticisms among his fellow pilots.

Early Galactic Civil War
"Good shot, Janson!"

- Wedge Antilles

Wes Janson, a native of Taanab, originally joined the Rebel Alliance as a member of the Tierfon Yellow Aces, a Y-wing squadron in training during the early years of the Alliance. For their first mission, the Yellow Aces were tasked with ambushing an Imperial convoy carrying supplies that the Alliance needed badly. When the convoy arrived at the system, its armed escort was larger than anticipated. One pilot, Kissek Doran, was suddenly struck with panic and tried to leave the group. With the prospect of compromising the entire ambush party if he was detected by the Imperials, Wes and Jek Tono Porkins were ordered to bring him back. Since using his ion cannon would give away their position, Wes was forced to use his lasers, vaping the fleeing pilot. It was his first kill.



After the Battle of Yavin, Janson joined Luke Skywalker's Rogue Squadron and served as a gunner for Wedge Antilles at the Battle of Hoth. During Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa's attempt to rescue Han Solo from the bounty hunter Boba Fett, Janson, as part of Rogue Squadron, was based on the moon of Kile from a temporary facility set up for them. Luke's plan had them attack two entire wings of TIE Fighters, plus two Imperial Star Destroyers in a surprise raid. The real purpose of the assault was to make a distraction, allowing the Millennium Falcon and the Outrider to reach Fett's craft and rescue Han.

When the Imperials launched more TIE fighters, Luke called for a retreat as the Rogues were beginning to take casualties. However, Wes's astromech droid suddenly took control of his X-wing. Programmed by a bribed technician, his ship began shooting at Luke's X-wing, with Wes powerless to stop it. Thankfully for Janson, Luke managed to disable Janson's rogue droid without causing any injury to him.

Later, Janson and the other Rogues participated in a space brawl over Coruscant with Black Sun forces while escorting the Millennium Falcon to safety. Ultimately, the intervention of the Imperial Navy, particularly the Executor, resulting in the destruction of the Black Sun leader's skyhook allowed the Rogues and the Falcon to escape in the confusion.

After the Battle of Endor, Janson accompanied Luke Skywalker, Tycho Celchu, Ten Numb and Wedge Antilles to Corellia and defeated Imperial General Weir. Soon after, Wedge Antilles took command of Rogue Squadron.

Wraith Squadron
"Oh, wonderful. I killed his father. He hates me. He knows how to make bombs. Come on, Wedge, how does this story end?"

- Wes Janson talking about Kell Tainer



After the fall of Palpatine, Wes and his good friend Hobbie left active duty and were tasked with building new starfighter units, resulting in the creation of both Corsair Squadron and Gauntlet Squadron, as well as the ill-fated Talon Squadron. When Wedge Antilles and the rest of the reformed Rogue Squadron left the New Republic to hunt down Ysanne Isard, the New Republic needed a Rogue Squadron to keep up appearances. The New Republic in turn created a temporary Rogue Squadron led by Hobbie and Wes and filled by former Rogues. After Wedge's return from Thyferra, this squadron was disbanded.

Shortly after, Wedge put Rogue Squadron under the command of Tycho Celchu and Hobbie while he and Wes formed the infamous Wraith Squadron. Wraith Squadron doubled as both a commando unit and a starfighter squadron. Wes served as Wedge's second in command of Wraith Squadron and helped select the squadron members, and served with the unit for the duration of the campaign against Warlord Zsinj. One of the great ironies of the Wraiths came to fruition when a man by the name of Kell Tainer was selected. He was the son of the late Kissek Doran and had changed his name when word reached him that his father had turned cowardly in the middle of battle. There was much angst between Wes and Kell at first, but as the campaign against Zsinj and his affiliates wore on, the two came to terms with one another.

In 13 ABY, Wedge was selected by the New Republic to be sent as an ambassador from the New Republic to Adumar. Wedge was instructed to bring along three of the New Republic's best starfighter pilots. Tycho, Hobbie and Wes were chosen to accompany Wedge. The four soon, under the designation of Red Flight, became enemies of Adumar's largest country, and helped lead a revolution to overthrow the superpower of Cartann, and create a democratic world government.



The Yuuzhan Vong War
"Sithspawn, I was flirting with a nine-year-old." "Nineteen. And she has more kills than the three of us put together at the same age."

- Wes Janson and Tycho Celchu referring to Jaina Solo

Wes later went on to found the volunteer squadron called the Taanab Yellow Aces during the Yuuzhan Vong War. This squadron arrived to help Wedge Antilles and his New Republic forces in the occupation of Borleias in 27 ABY. After the occupation ended, Wes and the Aces continued to serve the New New Republic military as an elite starfighter squadron along with Twin Suns, Vanguard, Blackmoon and Rogue Squadrons. During his time in the Twin Suns Squadron, Wes accidentally flirted with Jaina Solo. The Yellow Aces fought with distinction at Borleias and Ebaq IX. At Selvaris, some five years into the war, they helped the New Republic liberate captured troops and also participated in the Battle of Yuuzhan'tar.

Personality
"I thought you'd be able to do what I never could: get Janson up to an emotional age of fourteen." "Nothing in the galaxy could do that. Not Darth Vader and the dark side of the Force, not the nuclear devastation of an exploding sun."

- Wedge Antilles to Tycho Celchu

Wes was regarded as the joker, despite being a lethal opponent, being particularly accurate with blaster pistols and starfighter-grade weaponry. He enjoyed playing pranks on his fellow squad mates. During his time in Wraith Squadron, he developed the character Lieutenant Kettch who is supposed to be an Ewok starfighter pilot. Kettch became a recurring theme in Janson's pranks. This originated when he claimed that a candidate for Wraith Squadron was an Ewok, and then it got far, far out of hand, including the time Castin Donn reprogrammed Wedge's TIE Interceptor to make his voice sound like an Ewok. This led directly to Wedge being forced to fly into a dangerous battle, against Imperial Forces, while wearing a stuffed Ewok in his lap. When the stuffed Ewok doll started showing up everywhere and appeared to move on its own, Wedge attached a transponder to it, leading to the discovery that Janson was placing the doll in those places. The Wraiths got back at Janson by convincing him that the real Kettch had gotten loose and he had to strip naked and cover himself in Ewok food to find and recapture it. The joke only ended when Lara Notsil found a real Ewok that fit Kettch's description exactly. She found this hilarious.

Behind the scenes

 * Wes Janson was portrayed by Ian Liston in The Empire Strikes Back. During filming of The Empire Strikes Back, a call was put out for an actor, not an extra, to play an AT-AT gunner; Liston filled in the role. Thus he ironically played both an Imperial and a Rebel, and in one sequence of the film is in effect trying to shoot himself down.


 * Janson's helmet, like most, is pulled from A New Hope, where it is worn by Theron Nett. However, Nett's regular helmet is a different one: Janson's type of helmet can only be seen when Nett gets shot down, as seen in this card


 * In West End Games' first edition of Galaxy Guide 3: The Empire Strikes Back, in Wedge's entry, his gunner is named "Derit Janson". Any other mention of Janson in the book uses the name "Wes". The error was corrected in the second edition.

Notes and references
Wes Janson