Timothy James Mahoney was born in April 1922 in Cambridge, Massachusetts and lived there for a few years. While still a young kid, his family moved to Lexington, Massachusetts after a fire broke out in the family house. The family was not home at the time and were told about the fire from a family friend. Mahoney's family moved in with an aunt for a short time, then moved into a new house. Much of his family lived on the same street. Mahoney's father worked for a telegraph company. When he was transferred to Albany, New York, the family moved with him. Mahoney was in high school when the family moved. He went to a military day school in Albany. When he was a senior in high school, his father was transferred to New York City [Annotator's Note: New York, New York]. Mahoney remained in Albany [Annotator's Note: Albany, New York], living at a friend's house, until he graduated. The family had several dogs. When he graduated, Mahoney moved to the city with his family, but had a hard time finding a job. His father suggested he get training, so Mahoney went to an aviation sheet metal school. He finished school and got a job in a sheet metal shop in Montclair, New Jersey. He made refrigerators for General Electric. After a few months, Mahoney was laid off because the government wanted to conserve sheet metal. He found a job at a razor blade factory. Mahoney worked the night shift at the factory. One day, his mother noticed an ad in a newspaper for an assembly position for another company. Mahoney got the job because he could read blueprints. He assembled klystron tubes used in radar receivers. British RAF [Annotator's Note: Royal Air Force] people came to the factory and told the men the tubes being made helped the British see German planes as they took off. The tubes were created by brothers at Stanford University. He worked there until being drafted in November 1942.

Timothy Mahoney wanted to join the Navy because a friend of his was in the Navy. His father told him to wait until he was drafted. Mahoney went to get his physical and was put on a train to Yaphank, Long Island, where he was given his uniform and aptitude tests. Afterwards, all the men were brought to a room with a sergeant in it telling people where to go. It was there that Mahoney was sent to the Air Force. His test score made him eligible for radio school. He was sent to Atlantic City, New Jersey, where he did a two week basic training stint. He marched to Brigantine Field, which got chilly in November. He did his basic training drills at that field. He was then sent to radio school in Scott Field, Illinois. He enjoyed attending USO [Annotator's Note: United Service Organizations] activities. There was a scarlet fever epidemic at the time. Mahoney had to get checked after going into town. One day, he was diagnosed with the disease and was sent to the hospital. While there, Mahoney contracted pneumonia. He spent two and a half months in the hospital. When Mahoney returned to radio school, he was put into a new group heading to Madison, Wisconsin, where he was trained as a mechanic. After he finished school, Mahoney was sent to radar school in Boca Raton, Florida. The school was a concrete building surrounded by fence in the Everglades. In order to get into the school, a recruit had to be recognized by the instructor. When he would go to the beach in Fort Lauderdale [Annotator's Note: Fort Lauderdale, Florida], there was a sign signifying the radar school. Mahoney's class was split when it finished training. When he came out of the hospital, Mahoney had a two week furlough [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time]. When he finished school, he was not given time off. Instead, he learned to swim and dig holes. He learned how to get out of a parachute harness. In all, Mahoney had to kill time until his classmates returned from leave. When they did, Mahoney was taken out on a PBY [Annotator's Note: Consolidated PBY Catalina flying boat], where he operated the radar. They flew to the Keys [Annotator' Note: Florida Keys], the Bahamas, and back looking for targets. Normally they found fishing boats. Mahoney was given a furlough and then traveled to Langley Field, Virginia, where he trained on APS-15s [Annotator's Note: American ground scanning radar system used for blind bombing, also called H2X] and B-24s [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber]. Mahoney did more anti-submarine patrols.

When it was time to go overseas, Timothy Mahoney was put with a combat crew and flown to Fort Lauderdale [Annotator's Note: Fort Lauderdale, Florida], where he went to the firing range. Mahoney trained with a carbine [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic carbine]. The following day, he flew to Homestead, Florida. It got stormy and a PBY [Annotator's Note: Consolidated PBY Catalina flying boat] landed with men Mahoney was in school with. From there, he flew to Trinidad [Annotator's Note: island in the Caribbean Sea], where he ate fresh pineapple. Mahoney then flew to Brazil, where the plane's engines were checked. The crew then flew to Dakar, Africa. From there, he flew to Marrakesh [Annotator's Note: Marrakesh, Morocco]. The flight had to be done in daylight because flying over the Atlas Mountains [Annotator's Note: mountain range spanning portions of North Africa] was dangerous. During the flight, a generator in the plane broke, so he had to fly back. Mahoney spent the day at the beach. The next day, they flew through the mountains. The plane flew at 9,000 feet and Mahoney could see villages on the cliff edges. Mahoney thought Marrakesh was like a movie. He saw Legionnaires [Annotator's Note: members of the French Foreign Legion] guarding prisoners. Mahoney was impressed by their uniforms. From there, he flew to Tunis [Annotator's Note: Tunis, Tunisia], then Italy. Mahoney spent most of his flying time in the nose turret of the plane. After passing Sicily, Mahoney saw lava flowing from a mountain [Annotator's Note: probably Mount Vesuvius, which erupted in March 1944] near the town of Catania [Annotator's Note: Catania, Sicily, Italy]. Two Spitfires [Annotator's Note: British Supermarine Spitfire fighter aircraft] intercepted the bomber, which excited the pilot. The crew landed at Lecce, Italy, the 98th Bomb Group's [Annotator's Note: 98th Bombardment Group, 15th Air Force] base. The crew arrived and watched as the bomb group flew in from a mission. The planes were beat up. The CO [Annotator's Note: commanding officer] of the 98th wanted to keep Mahoney's crew, but his crew did not have the necessary equipment. He was transferred to the 376th Bombardment Group for a month, then his crew was split up. Eventually, Mahoney was sent to the 449th Bombardment Group, where he started a radar section, giving every bomber unit a radar section.

Timothy Mahoney was in the 449th Bombardment Group. During the invasion of Southern France [Annotator’s Note: Operation Dragoon], General Rush [Annotator’s Note: General Hugo P. Rush] was the CO [Annotator’s Note: commanding officer] of the group. He flew at the front of the unit. On his bombing run, his radar went out. The general had to turn the lead over to another plane. When he returned, the general was angry. The plane was one of Mahoney’s to work on. The general’s aide came to check on the plane and Mahoney told him nothing was wrong with the plane. Mahoney was friends with that planes radar operator, who got in trouble after Mahoney gave his report. It turns out the equipment was compromised when the pressure changed. The crew chief for that plane figured out a way to keep the equipment from messing up again. Around September, Mahoney visited Rome [Annotator’s Note: Rome, Italy] on a three day pass. He was flown up to the city. While there, Mahoney visited the Coliseum. He ran into a man he went to radar school with. They attended an USO [Annotator's Note: United Service Organizations] event and stayed with an Italian family. All of the Air Force men went to a restaurant. The Fifth Army soldiers were not allowed to go to the restaurants. When Mahoney arrived at his air field, he found out he had been put in for a promotion to staff sergeant. His air field had once been an airfield for the Italian Air Force. There was a blimp area and a radar area. There was a trough with cold water the airmen kept their beer in. The radar shop had been a sleeping quarter. One day, the room was hit with a bomb. Mahoney and his crew paid some Italian men to build them a house on a tile floor they found. They found materials from bombed out houses in the area. The house held the six crew chiefs. They were able to heat it with a five gallon gas can and some hot copper, which would ignite the gas. It as a comfortable house. After some time, one of the men built his own house. They named the housing unit H2X Alley after the codename for the radar equipment they used. One of the other guys moved into the other unit. One Sunday, they went to church. A man that Mahoney knew was coming back from Communion [Annotator’s Note: a religious ritual in the Christian faith], so they started hanging out together. Mahoney’s brother was a pilot in a nearby unit.

When Timothy Mahoney got to the 449th [Annotator's Note: 449th Bombardment Group, 47th Bombardment Wing, 15th Air Force], if a plane did not take off for three days, the radar technician needed to check the equipment. The ground crews always thought the equipment was faulty because it had to be checked so often. Mahoney watched a mission return and would tell the chief when the planes would land. There was a British outfit on the other side of the air field. They had Spitfires [Annotator's Note: British Supermarine Spitfire fighter aircraft] and Wellingtons [Annotator's Note: Vickers Wellington medium bomber]. Mahoney did not have much interaction with them. A British plane blew up on the runway. The British would take off in bad weather and would put large explosives on the plane. The bombs were booby trapped. When the bomb hit the ground the bomb would not detonate. In April 1945, the unit packed up and expected to go to the Pacific. On 10 May [Annotator's Note: 10 May 1945], the unit left Italy. Mahoney's ship was the first ship back. The boat landed in Boston [Annotator's Note: Boston, Massachusetts]. The boat arrived at midnight and circled the harbor for eight hours because the boat was going to be met by a celebration. Mahoney got onto a train and headed to a new camp. One of the guys on the train lived in a town it passed through. When he got to the camp he was told he would go to Camp Devens [Annotator's Note: near Shirley, Massachusetts]. Mahoney was given a 30 day leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] and got married. His brother-in-law served as his best man. After his leave, Mahoney was sent to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He thought he would be sent to the Pacific. His wife worked for Bolova [Annotator's Note: a watch making company]. She decided she would stay with him anywhere he was stationed while in the United States. In Sioux Falls, Mahoney was told he would not go overseas. Instead, he was sent to Kansas to work on B-29s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber]. The day the war ended, Mahoney and his boss went to a movie. They heard about the surrender of Japan after the movie. Cars were blowing their horns around town. He was discharged that September.

Timothy Mahoney only went on a flight after he did repairs to the radar equipment. The pilots did not like doing those flights because it was supposed to be their day off. That was how he tested the equipment after a repair. One plane came back from a mission, but was told to do another run past the field. The plane ran out of gas and all the crew died. The runway was a mile and a quarter long. It took time to get all the planes in before dark. The living conditions were good. Mahoney had a house built for himself and some friends. Many of the men lived together. The base for the 449th Bomb Group [Annotator's Note: 449th Bombardment Group, 47th Bombardment Wing, 15th Air Force] had been the headquarters for the Italian Air Force. There was a large building that had a big map of Europe in it. There was a guy who lived with Mahoney who had been a farmer. He would get up early in the morning to go to the mess hall. He would wake everyone up if there were eggs. After his house was built, Mahoney got a new radar officer. They added a room in the house for the officer. The officer would bring the men bread. Thanksgiving Day was a big deal because everyone got a nice meal. At the time, a movie called "Rhapsody in Blue" came out. The men were given a raffle ticket so some people could see it in town. On Thanksgiving night, Mahoney and some of the men went into town to see the movie. Mahoney wrote letters every day. His mother and girlfriend would also write every day. V-mail [Annotator's Note: Victory Mail; postal system put into place during the war to drastically reduce the space needed to transport mail] speed up the process a little. There was good communication in the family. His brother-in-law arrived in Italy in December 1944. Mahoney and his brother-in-law returned around the same time.

Timothy Mahoney kept up with his friends for some time after the war. One of his friends became a doctor. Another man visited Mahoney with his family. One of Mahoney's friends lived in the Bronx [Annotator's Note: a borough in New York, New York] and worked at Sperry [Annotator's Note: Sperry Corporation]. When Mahoney was discharged, his father-in-law was surprised because everyone joined the 52-20 club [Annotator's Note: a government-funded program that paid unemployed veterans 20 dollars per week for 52 weeks]. After Mahoney got out of the military, he went to work for Sperry. He told them he wanted to be a tester, testing klystron tubes [Annotator's Note: equipment used in radar]. He worked with one of the investors testing the equipment. He was promoted into another department. After two days, he was told to return to his old department, but got to keep the promotion. Mahoney worked for Sperry for 24 years before leaving the company. He then went to work for another company that made leak detectors. His boss sent him to California for six weeks. His job was to shut down the operation there and bring things back to New York. Mahoney went back to work for Sperry when the company returned to New York. Mahoney's in-laws owned a large house in Jackson Heights [Annotator's Note: a neighborhood in Queens, New York]. A women who lived in the upstairs apartment was married to someone in the OSS [Annotator's Note: Office of Strategic Services; pre-runner to today's Central Intelligence Agency or CIA]. Mahoney and his family lived in the house too. One day, someone wanted to see the upstairs apartment because the woman was leaving. Mahoney and his family were given the apartment instead. There was alot of empty land nearby, so the city made veterans homes. Houses were being built all over the place. Eventually, Mahoney moved to a different neighborhood. He heard a new company was being opened in Massachusetts, so the family moved there for work. Many of his neighbors were veterans. Mahoney became a scout master when his son joined the Boy Scouts.

Timothy Mahoney left the military older. The war made him more responsible. When he left the service, he was married and started having kids. His brother-in-law came back and married Mahoney's sister. When Mahoney was on his way home, his fiance started making marriage arrangements. Mahoney's wife had a cousin who was engaged to a man who came home with an English wife. The only thing Mahoney missed was being engaged. Mahoney's wife became pregnant not long after he came home. Mahoney's in-laws were Polish. They were good people. His mother-in-law was a good cook and was easy to get along with it. She did not know how to drive, so Mahoney would drive her around. She liked to play cards with her friends. They owned a piece of land and a house in Jackson Heights [Annotator's Note: a neighborhood in Queens, New York]. They had a large family and Mahoney enjoyed spending time with them.