Janson, Wes

• Appeared in:
  
  I
  II
  III
  IV
  V
  VI
  CW

• Homeworld:
  Taanab

• Species:
  Human

• Gender:
  Male

• Vehicle:
  Rebel snowspeeder, X-wing starfighter

• Affiliation:
  Rebel Alliance, Rogue Squadron

• 

From the Movies

Serving as a gunner in small vessel like the Alliance snowspeeder requires strong communication and great faith in the pilot. Janson and Wedge Antilles had perfected their coordination as gunner and pilot during the Battle of Hoth. Janson was the first Alliance gunner to successfully use the snowspeeder's harpoon and tow cable to entangle and trip an Imperial walker.

From the Expanded Universe

Earlier in his Rebel career, Janson was stationed at the Tierfon outpost. There, he was close friends with fellow pilot Jek Porkins. On one of his earliest flight missions, Janson had the terrible responsibility of killing a fellow pilot who panicked under pressure just prior to an ambush. Kissek Doran jeopardized the entire squadron, and Janson was forced to shoot out his fighter.

During the events leading up to first Death Star battle, starfighters from the Tierfon Yellow Aces were transferred to Yavin. Had Janson not been ill with a case of Hesken Fever, he would have participated in the Battle of Yavin.

Years after the Battle of Hoth, Janson continued flying with Rogue Squadron for the New Republic, participating in vital missions to Mrlsst, Eiattu and Brentaal IV. Alongside Wedge Antilles, Wes helped found Wraith Squadron. By the time of the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, Janson had retired from active duty, but returned to found the volunteer fighter group the Taanab Yellow Aces.

Janson has the reputation of a joker, often pulling memorable pranks on his squadron-mates.

Behind the Scenes

Contrary to popular belief, the uniform of a snowspeeder pilot is different from that of an X-wing pilot. The X-wing pilot uniform, seen in A New Hope, is worn underneath the heavier jacket seen on a snowspeeder pilot. Also, snowspeeder pilots wear the same white gloves and boots worn by Rebel Hoth troops, and not the black boots and gloves worn by standard X-wing pilots.