Andrew "Tim" Kiniry was born in November 1921 in Philadelphia. Rarely did the family have meat during the Great Depression. They ate a lot of beans which were provided by the government. His father was sick and out of work. He had worked in a cotton mill and breathed the fibers into his lungs. It was first thought that he had tuberculosis. Through the WPA [Annotator's Note: Works Progress Administration], his father took a job as a timekeeper. Meanwhile, Kiniry went into the woods to cut fuel for heat and found odd jobs to earn a bit of money for his clothes and upkeep. In the early 1940s, his mother worked as a seamstress. Kiniry worked at several different jobs until he learned to be a machinist. That would ultimately become his chosen profession after his military service.

Andrew Kiniry went for his physical on 8 August 1942. Shortly after his induction on 22 August at Fort Dix, he traveled by train to Camp Gordon near Augusta, Georgia. After a participating in maneuvers during the summer, he went to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey and loaded on the English ship Aquitania for the trip across the sea without a convoy. The food was not good and made him sick. Additionally, the weather was bad. He landed in England on 25 November 1943, Thanksgiving Day. There was more training until 13 June. The troops then moved out for a staging area near Portsmouth on 15 June. Kiniry landed in Normandy the next day across Omaha Beach. German fighters continued to harass the Allies during that time. Kiniry was trained to be a medic with the 45th Evacuation Hospital. There were 40 doctors and 40 nurses assisted by about 230 enlisted personnel in the unit. Kiniry's job was to take care of recovering patients in the ward following their operations. He tended to their medications and care of their cleanliness and so forth during recovery. The hospital was directly behind the frontlines. They worked basically 12 hour shifts that were split with other personnel.

Andrew Kiniry and the 45th Evacuation Hospital was part of the First Army. The 2nd Armored [Annotator's Note: 2nd Armored Division] was also part of the First Army. The first large scale influx of wounded was at La Cambe. During the month or so there, there were over 1,700 patients treated in the hospital. On 25 July [Annotator's Note: 25 July 1944], the unit was relocated to Airel. The hospital was set up in tents. It was not an easy project for a full service hospital. Kiniry had been well prepared by his training to handle the influx of patients. He was in a recovery ward for chest and stomach wound surgical patients. He knew what he had to do to treat the wounded patients. Many patients died during treatment. It was not a pleasant situation to lose someone. It was war but still hard to take. Kiniry was so busy that he did not have time to dwell on the losses. He was constantly taking care of patients. The numbers varied but he had multiple individuals to care for. He even gave injections to those recovering. He still remembers a soldier screaming because he was going to have his arm amputated. Kiniry had confidence in the doctors and surgeons and the choices they made. There were many colds to take care of in the brutal winter. The colonel that led the men overseas was a good leader and the men under him were proud of their service and what they had to do. The work was a tough deal. It made a better person out of Kiniry. During his shift, there were two enlisted and a nurse working the recovery ward. A ward tent held 20 patients. Many times there was an overload. No one was turned away. Doctors put in long hours.

Andrew Kiniry was briefly detached to an NP [Annotator's Note: neuropsychiatric] hospital under the 618th Clearing Company [Annotator's Note: 618th Medical Clearing Company]. He worked with those suffering battle fatigue. One soldier participated in five invasions. He was in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, Southern France and Normandy. He may have missed one of them. The man did not want to return to battle. Kiniry can understand that. He often wonders what happened to the man. The stress of combat got to many men. They needed rest and medication but could otherwise take care of themselves. They needed to talk to relieve the internal stress. Regular patients would be discharged back to their units after recovery. Patton [Annotator's Note: US Amry Lieutenant General George S. Patton] was wrong on his opinions of battle fatigue. Kiniry better understood what those men had gone through. Each person has a limit as to what he can take before reaching the breaking point. Kiniry had one case prior to deployment of alcohol withdrawal. The patient was wild. While at the NP hospital, Kiniry was part of about 125 medical personnel working there.

Andrew Kiniry rejoined his unit [Annotator's Note: 45th Evacuation Hospital] at Eupen, Belgium near the German border. There were two wards. Kiniry was assigned to the ward with chest and stomach wounds. He remained in that assignment for the duration of the war. After the war, he dealt with medical cases as opposed to combat casualties. The hospital remained in operation until 5 September 1945 when they prepared to return home. During the Battle of the Bulge, a shell landed in a courtyard near the hospital. Everyone survived that. The hospital shared a building with an ordnance depot. The Germans attacked the depot despite the hospital Red Cross insignia being visible. The window glass was shattered so patients had to be relocated to the bomb shelter. All were well taken care of during the process. Temporarily relocated, the staff, patients, and hospital facilities returned on 19 December [Annotator's Note: 19 December 1944] to their original location at Eupen. The 45th had hastily left Eupen but then made a U-turn and returned to the original site. Operations started again on 21 December. All efforts ceased on 26 December. During Christmas service, planes from both sides were in the air overhead. Kiniry could hear strafing going on. He observed a dog fight which culminated in the German plane being shot down. A group of trucks from the 45th was sent to obtain supplies in Malmedy where the 4th Army Medical Depot was situated. Infantrymen were praised for providing cover fire for the truckers who traversed the battlefield area. All hospital personnel returned, but one truck may have been lost. The 45th, as always, was close to the frontlines. Some friendly fire incidents happened close to the hospital unit at Airel. The 45th continued on to Spa, Belgium. It was one of the first hospital units to cross the Rhine River. The main bridge had collapsed. His unit crossed on a pontoon bridge. Kiniry brought his family to the location of the Ludendorff Bridge across the Rhine. The structural foundations remain today. Crossing the Rhine, the 45th moved on to Honnef, Germany. Continuing further into Germany, the hospital unit reached a spa area and occupied a fabulous hotel. The town was Bad Wildungen. It was beautiful country. When the 45th Evacuation Hospital exited the location, First Army headquarters took it over. Kiniry was in that beautiful location when he heard that Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: President Franklin D. Roosevelt] died. During the first three weeks of April, the 45th admitted over 2,000 patients. Over 300 patients were admitted each of several days. The next camp was set up at Hohra for a few days. It was near the Buchenwald concentration camp.

Andrew Kiniry reached Hohra and then entered into Buchenwald. The sights in the concentration camp were unbelievable. He saw dead bodies, ashes, ditches, and people in abject physical state. There were horrendous conditions where people were treated like animals or even worse. The people in nearby Weimar said they knew nothing about what was going on in the camp. The stench that was prevalent negated that position. Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton] headed the 3rd Army. Kiniry's outfit, the 45th Evacuation Hospital, was attached to the 3rd Army at that point. Patton forced the local population to witness on-site what had happened there. The 45th used local people to provide labor for their sanitation efforts in the camp. The view was indescribable. Trenches contained bodies. Kiniry felt the punishment could never be severe enough despite the guards explaining that they were acting under orders. Some of the camp officers had no compassion for the prisoners. It was all so unreal and overwhelming to Kiniry. He did his job there. His unit received a citation for their work with the fragile inhabitants. The men did not know what they were getting into when they entered the camp for the first time. Other Americans had preceded the 45th but a big job remained when they reached the 35,000 to 40,000 survivors there. The unit's main focus was discovery of tuberculosis in the camp. Those suffering from it were isolated in a special camp. People died while being treated during the two weeks from 28 April to 11 May 1945. Kiniry was there when the war ended in Germany. There was still work to do. Tents were set up and shower facilities were installed. Prisoners were fearful of taking a hot shower because of those who had been gassed by the Nazis in pseudo-showers. Eventually, they understood that it was safe and entered the showers to remove years of filth, lice, and the contaminations of their incarceration. They were provided with new clothes. Kiniry used sign language to communicate with the newly freed prisoners. Providing them food was dangerous because their stomachs had shrunken so much. Kiniry has met concentration camp survivors since the war but none from Buchenwald. He would like to meet Wiesel [Annotator's Note: Elie Wiesel] because he was there. Robert Clary of "Hogan's Heroes" was also in Buchenwald. He would like to discover if either one of them had been a patient treated by the 45th Evacuation Hospital. During the time in the camp, Kiniry was so busy working 12 hour shifts that he could not dwell on circumstances in the concentration camp. By the time he worked, ate, wrote a letter home, and took a shower, there was no time to think about other things. Memories of the camp returns to him today. He has taken people to Washington to the Museum [Annotator's Note: the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is located in Washington, D.C.].

Andrew Kiniry and his unit [Annotator's Note: 45th Evacuation Hospital] was stationed outside of Weimar at Hohra. The Buchenwald concentration camp was nearby. The hospital treated some German military personnel during the war. Some of those enemy soldiers were grateful, but some were nasty while being treated. He particularly remembers a young man who was mean to an American doctor attempting to aid him. The individual was a German youth. The incident was in Eschweiler before the capture of the Remagen Bridge. Kiniry felt he had to work to aid the enemy who were injured. He thought killing them on a battlefield made more sense than killing them in a hospital. Kiniry was in the Buchenwald concentration camp when the war ended. He was in Bretten, Germany when he received his orders to ship home. Although he left Europe in mid-September, he was not discharged until 25 November 1945. It was a slow process. He passed through several camps before voyaging home on 10 November. He landed in Boston and went to Camp Miles Standish at Thanksgiving time. He then went to Fort Monmouth in New Jersey. He was discharged there. He went home and was happy. The war made a better person of him. He worked as a machinist following the war and retired in 1960 or 1961.

Andrew Kiniry is frustrated with politicians today. He sees the graves of the dead in foreign battlefields and thinks about the mistreatment of veterans today. The political situation makes him angry. He is highly concerned with museums and monuments that leave out Roosevelt's [Annotator's Note: President Franklin D. Roosevelt] words about God's help in winning the victory of World War 2. Those words "so help us God" should not be left out of museums and monuments. [Annotator's Note: Kiniry becomes agitated.] He is fed up with politicians and do-gooders who want to take away the right to have God in our life. People who died for our rights should be able to have those words expressed for them. It makes Kiniry reluctant to visit institutions where the words about God are censured. He is also frustrated with teachers who lecture students that the atomic bomb should not have been used. Kiniry does not like the atomic bomb, but without it, he may not have survived an invasion of Japan. His outfit would have likely gone to Japan without the bombs being dropped. A lot more people would have been lost in an invasion than were lost in the two bombings. The Japanese would not have surrendered without the use of those two bombs. The atomic bomb is a negative that came out of the war. Kiniry likes the idea of The National WWII Museum. It has a lot more detail than the one in Washington. He would like to take a trip to New Orleans to see the Museum. It covers more phases of what happened during the war. Kiniry donates to the Museum. The Supreme Court does not follow the Constitution as our forefathers intended. It frustrates Kiniry. Congress twists things around to suit them. They all need to be voted out of office and gain a new start.