Major Antoni Wiącek Antoni Wiącek

Antoni Wiącek was born to a peasant family on January 11, 1889, in the Austrian-controlled part of Poland. In 1912, he emigrated to the United States, where he settled in New York and became a member of the Polish Falcons Alliance of America. He completed the Falcons’ instructor course in Philadelphia, which was designed to create a corps of military instructors to train future officers for a Polish Army.
Wiącek was part of the inaugural Polish Officers’ School of Infantry class at the University of Toronto and upon completion, he graduated as a Lieutenant. Antoni was given a position at the Polish Army Recruitment office in Boston, Massachusetts, and in the summer of 1918, he joined the Firs Rifle Regiment of the Polish Army in France.
In the spring of 1919, Wiącek was transferred to Poland to take part in the Polish-Soviet War, where he was put in command of his own company. In May of 1920, Antoni was shot in battle near Lipowca-Napodowski. Even though he was injured he carried on leading his company. Among the Regiment Officers, his actions were regarded with the highest honour. He would go on to repeat these actions again in battle near Rowne, where he was seriously wounded.
After being discharged from the army, he was awarded the Silver Cross of the Order of Virtuti Militari, Croix de Guerre and the Cross of Valour (three times). After the war, Wiącek stayed in Poland to help his country regain its independence. Sadly, Antoni was executed in what has become known as the Katyn Forest Crime, where 15,000 Polish Army officers were executed by the Soviet Army during World War II.