Hibberd Van Buren Kline, III, Colonel USMCR (Retired) is an honors graduate in History from Harvard College, where he was starting saber on the Freshman Fencing Team and founding President of the Harvard Polo Club. Subsequently, he earned a Juris Doctorate from the University of Virginia.

Colonel Kline served thirty years active and reserve, ashore and afloat, as an infantry officer and intelligence officer in the United States Marine Corps, including active service during Vietnam and the Gulf War.

Colonel Kline has been a War Between the States reenactor on-and-off since 1962, including participating as a Marine in the movie "Gods and Generals." When he writes of amphibious landings from whaleboats or firing large caliber 19th Century naval guns he actually has done so. Conflicting Loyalties, the first novel in his Navy Gray series is set in West Africa where he lived for a year as a child.

Colonel Kline currently is a practicing attorney, an adjunct college professor, and a Civil War re-enactor.