A memoir about growing up on Cold War Air Force bases, tracing one girl’s construction of a faith entirely her own — across Lutheran parsonages, base chapels, Southern Gospel television, Billy Graham revivals, and the Catholic churches of Europe — while navigating a family that couldn’t quite see her.
Writer · Historian · Retired Army officer
Murph Kinney
I grew up on Cold War Air Force bases, the daughter of a Lutheran chaplain who ended up in the Army, a child of the parsonage who ended up Catholic. This memoir is about what I built in the space between.
My work sits at the intersection of faith, military life, and the particular education a childhood in motion gives you. I write about sacred spaces, surrogate mothers, red hymnals, and the silence over missile silos.
2LT Kinney, Presidio of San Francisco, 1986
Now writing
The Chaplain’s Daughter
A memoir. Cold War bases, Lutheran parsonages, and a faith built entirely her own.
The red Lutheran hymnal traveled to every posting — one of the memoir’s recurring objects, a portable piece of a world that otherwise left no fixed address.
About
Murph Kinney is a historian, retired Army officer, and retired community college professor working on her first memoir. She grew up on Cold War Air Force bases — Hill, Kelly, Blytheville, Aviano, FE Warren, Woomera, and points between — the daughter of a Lutheran Air Force chaplain and a family that moved, as Air Force families do, before roots could form.
She is a historian of nationalism and liturgy, which turns out to be excellent preparation for writing about both military culture and faith formation. After years in the classroom, the writing called more insistently.
Her essays on faith, memory, and military life are forthcoming in literary journals.
She lives in western Massachusetts with her wife Leah, their coonhound mix Ernie, twelve hens, and Mr. Roo.
The Kinney family, 1968
Publications
“The Officer’s Wife” — Political Junkie, Substack (Claire Potter, ed.), March 18, 2026
“Between Duty and Mercy” — Image Journal, submitted March 2026
“Stir Up In Martha”: Zion, Let Me Enter In — Dappled Things, submitted May 2026
Writing
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March 18, 2026Political Junkie, Substack — Claire Potter, ed.Published
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Between Duty and MercyMarch 2026Image JournalSubmitted
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“Stir Up In Martha”: Zion, Let Me Enter InMay 2026Dappled ThingsSubmitted
In progress & forthcoming
Essays on faith formation, Cold War military childhood, and conversion, forthcoming in literary journals including River Teeth, Fourth Genre, Brevity, Image Journal, Dappled Things, and War, Literature and the Arts.
On Substack
Occasional essays on faith, memory, and the places that form us.
Read on Substack →
The Chaplain’s Daughter
A Field Guide to Sacred Spaces — Memoir in progress
The daughter of an Air Force chaplain who ended up in the Army. The child of a Lutheran pastor who ended up Catholic. Not a rejection of where she came from — the most honest response to it she could find.
Hill AFB chapel, Utah
Acolytes, Aviano AFB, Italy — September 1974
The memoir follows a childhood in motion across eight postings, from a Lutheran parsonage in North Carolina to an outback base in South Australia, from the missile fields of Wyoming to the screaming fighters over an Italian softball field. Each place adds a layer.
It ends at the Presidio of San Francisco, 1986 — one week after Chernobyl. A new Army lieutenant with a geiger counter. Her mother asking why she isn’t in a skirt and pumps.
Statesville, NC
Ages 3–4
Hill AFB, Utah
Ages 5–6
Rock Hill, SC
Ages 6–7
Kelly AFB, Texas
Ages 7–8
Blytheville AFB, AR
Ages 8–10
Aviano AFB, Italy
Ages 10–13
FE Warren AFB, WY
Ages 13–16
Woomera, Australia
Ages 16–17
Comparable to Mary Karr’s The Liar’s Club, Lauren Winner’s Girl Meets God, and Tobias Wolff’s This Boy’s Life. Excavation draft in progress.
Get in touch
I’m happy to hear from readers, editors, and fellow writers.
Email
murph@murphkinney.com
Substack
murphk549940 on Substack
Essays on faith, memory & place
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