Harry T. Kite

Risking his life was nothing new to Kite. He had been assigned to Engine 29 of the Philadeiphia Fire Department for 14 months be-fore being drafted into the Army in March 1968. The 21-year-old private first class, a ri-fleman, was sent to Vietnam and assigned to Company D of the 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry, 25th Infantry Division. Kite became the first Philadelphia firefighter to die in Vietnam when he was killed in a firefight near Saigon on Nov. 24, 1968. He was posthumously awarded the Silver Star. The son of a deputy fire chief, Kite was a 1965 graduate of George Washington High School and attended Temple University for a year. He was survived by his wife, parents, three brothers and two sisters.