His son Bruce notes that "as a 16-year-old, he was a crew member on the sailing schooner Puritan to Hawaii."
There, he received a bachelor's degree in marine engineering in February 1941 and immediately went on sea duty due to preparations for American involvement in World War II.
After commissioning as an officer, he served aboard the USS Sturtevant on North Atlantic convoy duty.
Kinney received the "Navy and Marine Corps Medal for Heroism for diving from his ship in submarine infested waters to rescue two downed aviators.
For this he was given the Navy Cross, the Legion of Merit and the Bronstein a Presidential Unit Citation.
Adm. Robert Carney, chief of naval operations from 1953 to 1955, described the Bronstein's fight that night as "the most concentrated and successful antisubmarine action by a U.S. Navy ship during World War II."
For the rest of WW II, Kinney served as the Anti-Submarine Warfare Officer on the staff of the Commander Destroyers Atlantic.