Henry Wallace Kinnan (March 7, 1919 – November 22, 2002) was an American decorated World War II hero, also was one of the first well-known U.S. pioneer television broadcast meteorologists.

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.

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.

From there he went on to bomber transition and deployed overseas as a B-17 Flying Fortress pilot with the 429th Bombardment Squadron, 2nd Bomb Group, based at Massicault Airfield, Tunisia, as part of the Twelfth Air Force.

After taking fire that damaged the aircraft, alighting the #4 engine and wounding the other pilot; the crew immediately began bail-out procedures.

Kinnan and Pilot Officer Leonard Whiteley of the British Royal Air Force organized and led the group.

After the arrival of General George S. Patton's Third Army, on April 29, 1945, Kinnan and his fellow POWs in Stalag VII-A were liberated.

During the Korean War, Kinnan served in weather service assignments on Kwajalein Atoll, Guam and Hawaii.

While stationed at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City, Kinnan was a part of the Severe Storm Center of the Air Weather Service (AWS), headed by meteorologists Major Ernest J. Fawbush and Captain Robert C. Miller; Kinnan's team worked on development of methodology for tornado forecasting despite the AWS's belief that such a method could not exist.

[1] Along with Francis K. Davis and Kenneth H. Jehn, Kinnan was one of the first three meteorologists to earn the American Meteorological Society's "Seal of Approval".

[2] While still on active duty with the Air Force, Oklahoma City's WKY-TV hired Kinnan in February 1951 to host a nightly weather segment dubbed "Wally the Weatherman.

"[3] Owing to his existing work with the Air Force and AWS, WKY-TV eventually teamed up Kinnan with fellow certified meteorologist Harry Volkman to form the first professional television weather department.

[5] Along with another on-air warning for a tornado that struck Meeker on May 1, 1954, but resulted in no fatalities,[6] Kinnan and Volkman were largely credited for saving lives, and WKY-TV became the first television station to hold a contract with the National Weather Service.

[7] Following Kinnan's 1953 discharge from the Air Force,[8] his on-air work at WKY-TV increased, and he assumed Volkman's role as lead meteorologist in 1955.

He was also the founding Director of the Franklin Institute Weather Center with Col. Robert C. Miller of the Fawbush-Miller Tornado team.