 His father, Wally Kinnan, a pioneering television meteorologist and early television personality, was also a B-17 pilot during World War II and was shot down, spending nearly two years as a POW in Stalag Luft III.While interned Wally was a founding member of the Sagan Serenaders, a group of musicians who were immortalized in the movie "The Great Escape" for holding concerts to cover the sound of digging associated with the escape attempt.Wally's war-time and peacetime service created in Tim a strong interest in the US Air Force.