Michael Janich

Michael Janich began his education in the martial arts at the age of 12, studying boxing under a former Golden Gloves champion on the southwest side of Chicago. After boxing for a year, he switched his focus to the eclectic martial art of American Self-Protection (ASP), which includes elements of judo, aikido, boxing, fencing, and French savate. He earned his black belt at age 14 and by age 16 had become a senior instructor of his local ASP chapter.

Immediately after graduating from high school, Janich enlisted in the U.S. Army, specializing in Asian languages and intelligence analysis. Twice graduating with honors from the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, he achieved proficiency in both Chinese-Mandarin and Vietnamese and was assigned to various postings, including the National Security Agency and the U.S. Embassy, Bangkok, Thailand.

Janich left the military after nine years of service and was promptly recruited by the Defense Intelligence Agency as a debriefer for its Stony Beach program, an effort dedicated to investigating the fates of American prisoners and missing in action from the Vietnam War. While assigned to the American Consulate in Hong Kong, he traveled to Vietnamese refugee camps throuout Asia, debriefing intelligence sources claiming knowledge of American POW/MIA.

Later, Janich returned to Bangkok as an investigation team leader for the Joint Casualty Resolution Center (JCRC), conducting on-site investigations of POW/MIA loss incidents in Indochina. While serving with JCRC and its successor, the Joint Task Force-Full Accounting, Janich led numerous investigations into remote areas of Vietnam and Laos and served as interpreter for negotiations between the U.S. officials and representatives of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

Throughout his years of military and civil service, Janich continued his study of the martial arts through training with practitioners of wing chun gung fu, tae kwon do, wu ying tao, Thai boxing, Filipino escrima and U.S. Special Forces combatives. He also conducted extensive research on the weapons of various Asian cultures and assembled an impressive collection of traditional arms.

Although skilled in unarmed combat and the use of a variety of weapons, Janich's forté is the knife. In his words, "The knife hones combative skills faster than any other weapon. A mistake with a fist or stick might be pretty unpleasant, but the same mistake with a knifie could easily be fatal. With that in mind, staying motivated and maintaining a serious attitude toward self-defense are never problems."

Two years ago, Janich gleefully left government service to establish Paladin's in-house video production department. He now oversees the shooting, editing, and post-production of all Paladin videos and assists other Paladin authors in showcasing their skills on video.

In addition to his Paladin books and video, Janich has written articles for Fighting Knives and Inside Kung-Fu magazines and has produced a four-volume video series on knife fighting and knife throwing with Panther Productions. He continues to actively train in the martial arts and teaches regular seminars on knife combatives for interested groups and individuals.