In 1913, at the age of 17, he enlisted in the Rifle Teams in Horodenka in the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria. After the reorganization of the teams, he was assigned to the 2nd Cavalry Regiment based in Brody, Ukraine, to the first Legions of Józef Piłsudski. He fought against the Russian Empire in World War I and against Soviet Russia in the Polish-Soviet war.