Bragg soldier remembered as driven by love

Staff Sgt. Christopher T. Stout, 34, who had been based at Fort Bragg for 12 years, died July 13 while repelling an insurgent attack on a police compound in Kandahar.

Stout's brother-in-law, Brian Coalson, remembers him as a man with a passion for "the three major things: his God, his family, his country."

"He had a holy boldness with him," Coalson said. "He believed God. He breathed God. He talked God."

Stout and his wife, Misty, had been married for nine years and had three daughters.

"His love for his wife Misty and his three princesses, Jacqueline, Audreanna and Kristen, always kept a radiant smile on his face," Army Chaplain Ludovic O. Foyou said in a statement.

"He always talked about how he missed them. He couldn't wait to get back to see them, do stuff with them," Coalson said.

Stout, a native of Worthville, Kentucky, joined the Army in 1997 and served with quartermasters' units until in 2006, he re-classed as a chaplain's assistant. He was working to become an Army chaplain.

He deployed to Afghanistan last August with the 1st Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division.

"Stout was not just a chaplain's assistant; he was my friend, brother and shield of armor,” Foyou said. “His immensely pure love for his fellow paratroopers epitomizes the spirit of the Army Chaplain Corps."

Coalson recalled his brother-in-law talking about the Bible with fellow shoppers in WalMart.

"He was on fire for God. He was always energetic. Anybody, anywhere, he could stop and pick up any conversation and be able to bring God into it," Coalson said.

Stout's energy will be missed at First Church in Fayetteville, which he had attended since 1998. On Sunday, the church took out a full-page ad in The Fayetteville Observer to honor Stout.

"He could fill a whole room with his voice, the whole sanctuary. It was amazing," Coalson said.

Stout lived out his calling in life, his brother-in-law said.

"He was serving his family, making sure they still had their freedom, and everybody else," Coalson said.