Wally Kinnan Henry Wallace " Wally " Kinnan ( March 7 , 1919 – November 22 , 2002 ) who was a decorated World War II hero , also was one of the first well known U . S . pioneer television broadcast meteorologists . Kinnan held American Meteorological Society Television Seal # 3 . Kinnan , who also served in World War II as a B - 17 bomber pilot and then an Advanced Weather Officer attaining the rank of Captain in the United States Air Force before resigning in March 1953 to enter broadcasting in Oklahoma . Personal and family background . Kinnan was born to David V . Kinnan and Hazel Hamer . He met his wife , the former Marjorie G . Ahrendt at North High School in Columbus , OH where they both attended . He has two sons , David E . Kinnan , Esq . and Timothy A . Kinnan . Both of his sons followed in his footsteps and joined the US Air Force . David was an Air Force JAG Officer and Tim went on to have a full military career . Wally was a trumpet player with the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra and Charlie Barnet during his undergraduate years at Ohio State out of love for music and as a way to help pay for school . Education . Kinnan attended North High School in Columbus , Ohio . After graduation he attended Ohio State University where he was a mechanical engineering undergraduate . He was a member of the Theta Tau Fraternity and the Ohio State Football band . He left Ohio State to enlist in the US Army Air Corps . He studied Meteorology from 1947 to 1948 at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and took an advanced course in Tropical Meteorology in 1951 at the University of Chicago . Service career . Kinnan enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps on March 31 , 1942 at Fort Hayes , Columbus , OH for service during World War II . He began flight training in September 1942 . Kinnan was commissioned a second lieutenant upon graduation from the Pilot training on April 12 , 1943 . While in casual status at Luke Air Base he broke the fighter gunnery record . He was initially trained to be a fighter pilot , however , the Air Corps needed bomber pilots and Kinnan , like many others , were reassigned to bombers . From there he went on to bomber transition and deployed to Europe as a B - 17 Flying Fortress Bomber Pilot . Kinnan participated in the air offensives over Sicily , Normandy , Northern France , Rhineland and Central Europe . World War II Combat Pilot , Plane Shot Down . Kinnan ' s aircraft was shot down over Eygalières , Vichy France on August 17 , 1943 . He sustained shrapnel injuries which were compounded when he bailed out too close to the ground and made hard impact . His injuries prevented him from evading and he was captured . He was first taken to a Hospital in Arles to heal and then transferred to Stalag Luft III in Sagan , now Żagań in Poland . Heroic Bailout from a B - 17 bomber . Kinnan ’ s recount of his bail - out of his bomber aircraft was harrowing even in the telling . After taking fire that damaged the aircraft , alighting the # 4 engine and wounding the other pilot ; the crew immediately began bail - out procedures . Wally , the only pilot at the yoke , maintained as much control of the aircraft as possible to ensure that his crew members were all safely out . Once they were out he put the aircraft into as stable a configuration that he could to maintain altitude and attitude . But the badly damaged aircraft , on fire , lost the right wing and continued to descend . In order to bail - out , Kinnan had to make his way to the nose hatch . However , the erratic flight of the damaged B - 17 required him to crawl and pull himself along . As Kinnan was crawling , his parachute caught on some part of the aircraft which left Wally in frantic state trying to unbind himself and his parachute from the rapidly descending aircraft . During this process he had unbuckled his parachute and was never able to put it back on properly . Finally able to free himself he launched himself from the airplane , up and out the normally facing downward hatch and pulled his parachute ' s ripcord . Kinnan and M / Sgt Henry Petroski were the last two to exit , falling amidst the burning debris of their aircraft . Because he had not been able to properly restrap the parachute on , when it opened it twisted him up causing a severe back injury . This , plus the wounds he had sustained from the flak bursts while still in the aircraft made it impossible for him to evade capture once he was on the ground . Taken Prisoner of War . Kinnan strongly credits his German captors in France with great humanity and care of his injuries . However , after just only over a week in France they transferred him to another hospital that was part of Dulag Luft near Frankfurt , where his treatment was much more stern . Once processed he was transferred to Stalag Luft III in mid - September 1943 . The reality of the situation in the Stalag system was even more dire and cruel to where life often hinged on not having enough to eat . " Sagan Serenaders " . Near the end of 1943 , there were many new prisoners coming into the camp . Kinnan , who may have been almost a real - life Hogan ’ s Hero , persuaded the German captors to find some decent musical instruments so they could put on some organized musical programs . Kinnan and a group of Who ’ s Who ’ s of music that were all interred in German Camps founded a band called the " Sagan Serenaders " . Kinnan ( and Pilot Officer Leonard Whiteley of the British Royal Air Force ) organized and led the group . The Serenaders received donated musical instruments from aid organizations and whatsoever the German captors could scrounge up . One instrument was an unusual trombone that Wally described as a plumber ' s nightmare . They ' sacrificed ' this instrument so that other POW ' s could turn it into a still . Included in this group were pianist John Bunch , who would later play with bandleaders Woody Herman and Benny Goodman ; Tiger Ward ; John Brady ; Hi Bevins ; Nick Nagorka and trumpeter Vince Shank who later would play with Russ Morgan . The Serenaders had four trumpets ( one was one ) , two trombones , five saxophones , and four rhythm instruments . Wally Kinnan once said , " We were beginning to talk seriously about taking the band on tour in the U . S . when and if we could manage to survive the war . " The 1963 motion picture " The Great Escape " , which greatly depicts some of the Serenders and Kinnan ' s experiences , showed a choir singing while the escape started but in actuality , it was the Serenaders . The Serenaders contributed to the effort regularly by practicing their instruments to mask the sound of digging . " The Great Escape " depicted , Kinnan ' s Release from Captors . Towards the end of the war the Russians were nearing Stalag Luft III so the Germans forced marched the POW ' s to Stalag Luft VII A . Kinnan ' s youngest son , Timothy , who is a retired Lt . General in the U . S . Air Force , has pointed out that his father ( Kinnan ) , through encoded letters to his mother ( Kinnan ' s wife Marjorie ) , had informed the United States War Department ( now the Department of Defense ) that fifty of the escapees were recaptured by the Germans and were shot by firing squad . The letters was decoded by the U . S . government and then sent on to Kinnan ' s wife . Early in 1945 , the Soviets were approaching the camp . The Germans marched 12 , 000 prisoners , including the band members , straight out of the camp . Wally thought they would be marched into a field and executed . However , they were led on a forced march instead , through a blizzard to Spremberg almost 200 miles away . Many of the POWs died during the trek . Pianist Bunch , said Kinnan had saved his life by sharing a potato . Food was very scarce . After the arrival of General Patton ’ s Third Army at Stalag Luft VII A , on April 29 , 1945 , Kinnan , along with his other very grateful companions were finally freed . Kinnan would then spend his processing time at Camp Lucky Strike before being sent stateside . Official records have initial capture date as August 17 , 1943 with official repatriation to the United States as of June 30 , 1945 . Post War Accomplishments . After being repatriated , Kinnan attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ( MIT ) and received his degree in Meteorology . After the creation of the U . S . Air Force branch in 1948 , Kinnan served in that branch as a Weather Officer , performing all of his duties there . During the Korean War , Kinnan served in the Pacific Theatre region . His other assignments included weather service on the Kwajalein Atoll , Guam and Hawaii . He was a pioneer of the Severe Storm Center of the Air Weather Service . Deciding a career in Broadcast Meteorology was an exciting field he resigned his commission from the US Air Force to become one of the earliest broadcast meteorologists . Career in Meteorology as " The Weatherman " . Kinnan , who was affably nicknamed " The Weatherman " , was a well - known personality in Oklahoma City , Philadelphia , Cleveland and Tampa . Kinnan worked alongside sports anchor Jim Graner at WKYC - TV in Cleveland ; later , from 1978 to 1980 , he worked at station WTSP in Tampa , FL . Kinnan was one of the first three meteorologists , joining Francis K . Davis and Kenneth H . Jehn , to earn the " Seal of Approval " from the American Meteorological Society . Wally often told the story of how they drew straws to determine who would be the first , second , and third meteorologist to earn the seal . Kinnan was number 3 , while Davis and Jehn were numbers 1 and 2 , respectively . He later went on to serve on the Board of the American Meteorological Society for Radio and Television Broadcasting and the Committee on Industrial Meteorology . He was also the founding Director of the Franklin Institute Weather Center with Col . Robert C . Miller of the Fawbush - Miller Tornado team . Kinnan died at the age of 83 of an aortic aneurysm on Friday , November 22 , 2002 in Houston , Texas . The Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia posthumously inducted Kinnan into their Hall of Fame in 2009 .