Kline left La Salle College in his senior year to join the Police Department in the 25th District, where his father had been a sergeant for many years. Drafted into the Army in May 1967, Kline later wrote to his uncle that he found himself fighting in the streets of Salgon, but preferred combat in the jungles of Vietnam. The Cardinal Dougherty High School graduate planned to return to college to complete requirements for a political science degree. The 25-year-old specialist four James J. Kline was an assistant machine-gunner assigned to Company C of the 2nd Battalion, 703rd Infantry, and 199th Light Infantry Brigade. Kline was killed on May 14, 1968, when a large Viet Cong force tried to overrun his base camp. He had run through heavy machine-gun and rocket fire to carry six wounded comrades to safety and was pulling two other wounded soldiers to safety from an enemy-held bunker when he was mortally wounded. Kline was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. Survivors include his mother, two brothers and a sister.