Kirk McLaughlin was born and raised in Los Angeles and spent 6 years in the US Air Force as a Military Cargo Specialist and a member of the USAF Security Police. After his service, Kirk returned home and attended college. Kirk relocated to Texas and after working 10 years as a dispatch supervisor for a manufacturing facility he joined the Arlington, Texas fire department where he spent the next 27 years as a Firefighter,

Arson Investigator and Incident Command Technician. In November of 2020 he and his wife, Stephanie, retired to Fairfield Glade, where Kirk currently serves as Fire Chief of the Fairfield Glade Fire Dept. Kirk is also a board member with the Veterans and First Responders Memorial. He also serves with Team Rubicon, a humanitarian disaster relief responder, serving veterans in Texas as a Planning and Operations Deputy. His work with Team Rubicon continues in Tennessee as the Wellness leader for Kentucky and Tennessee as well as responding to natural disasters and serving as a logistics commander.