Maj. Kirby Vidrine has been a chaplain for almost 17 of his 28 years in active duty but that role wasn’t part of his career plans.
“I can look back and see God’s providence in my life, and there’s no doubt that I am where I’m supposed to be,” said Vidrine, the new Garrison chaplain who was the 2nd Recruiting Brigade chaplain for the last two years.
Vidrine was serving with the Oklahoma National Guard and about to start his last semester at Oklahoma Baptist University in 2003.
“I didn’t know what I was going to do when I graduated and, two days later, I got orders for Afghanistan as a platoon sergeant with the Oklahoma National Guard,” he said. “During that deployment, my chaplain asked me if I could preach every other weekend because he was the only chaplain for our whole brigade, and I told him I would as long as it didn’t conflict with my duties.
“It was through that (experience) that God showed me my mission field, what I was supposed to be.”
Vidrine, who grew up in the farming community of Branch, Louisiana, enlisted in 1988 at age 19 and went to basic training the following year at Fort Benning, Georgia.
“It was always what I wanted to do as early as I can remember,” said Vidrine, whose father had served in the 82nd Airborne. “I grew up around Soldiers and veterans.”
Vidrine, who was an infantryman on active duty from 1989 to 2001, returned to school to receive a bachelor’s in missions, then a master’s in divinity from Liberty Theological Seminary and, while at Liberty, he went into the Chaplain Candidate Program. He spent six years in the Oklahoma National Guard and Army Reserve while attending college and seminary.
He commissioned as a chaplain (first lieutenant) in 2008 in the Army and served the 50th Expeditionary Signal Battalion at Fort Bragg, North Carolina; 9th Combat Engineer Battalion at Schweinfurt, Germany; 10th Military Police Battalion (CID) at Fort Bragg; 4th Brigade Support Battalion, 4th Infantry Division at Fort Carson, Colorado; 40th Expeditionary Signal Battalion at Fort Huachuca, Arizona; and as Garrison family life chaplain for Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska.
In all, he had three combat deployments, two as a chaplain – in Iraq in 2009 and Afghanistan in 2011-12.
Vidrine, an ordained Southern Baptist minister, said he brings “a heart for ministry” to his new job. Coming to the Garrison, “I am very excited about getting back into preaching and teaching roles.”
Vidrine also wants to provide marriage and premarital counseling and one-on-one trauma counseling.
He earned a master’s in counseling from Webster University’s Fort Bragg campus, graduated from the Family Life Course at Fort Bragg and has about five years of experience as a full-time counselor.
“I was really thankful to get this assignment,” which will give his family some stability, Vidrine said. And Vidrine’s wife of 31 years, Wendy, has family members living in Fort Payne and Pell City.
Wendy Vidrine was a Soldier when the couple met in Bad Kreuznach, Germany in 1992. They were married eight months later.
The Vidrines had 11 children, and two of their sons have died. Their children range in age from 10 to 28 and include 19-year-old twins. They also have five grandchildren.
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