 While in casual status at Luke Army Airfield he broke the fighter gunnery record.He initially trained to be a fighter pilot, however, the Air Corps needed bomber pilots and Kinnan, like many others, were reassigned to bombers.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.