Member Spotlight: Sierra Eichhorst

Sierra Eichhorst - Member Since 2022

Wyoming Air National Guard (2019-Present)

Sierra Eichhorst heard about Health4Heroes when one of her co-workers invited her to be on his team for the first annual Guardian Games in 2022. “I was nervous about coming the first time,” especially since she had never been to any Health4Heroes events, but “everyone was super welcoming and easy to be friends with.” After that, Sierra decided Health4Heroes was the group for her. Even though she drives down from Cheyenne each time she goes to an event, she said it is worth it to surround herself with a like-minded and supportive community of people. 

To anyone who knows Sierra, it would not be a surprise to find out the high-intensity physical challenge at the Guardian Games had inspired her to find her people. Currently, she is in her fourth year as a Staff Sergeant in Security Forces for the 253rd Command and Control Group with the Wyoming Air National Guard. The mission of the 253rd is to provide mobile, survivable and endurable command, control, communication and computer capabilities and intelligence in any environment, on any given day.  Although her team is tight-knit, she says that because of the Intelligence bend to her squadron, the biggest threat she needs to be aware of is the “insider threat.” It is tough. On the one hand, it is of the utmost importance that everyone stays close as a unit. But on the other hand, if someone within her unit threatens the mission, she needs to be ready to defend her country “against all enemies foreign and domestic.” Even though warfare started on battlefields, advanced technology has expanded war-readiness and capabilities that allow her unit to respond on a moments notice.

To help prepare for modern emergencies, Sierra and her team of six are currently training for the 2023 Global Strike Challenge. The Global Strike Challenge is a premiere competition that pits Air Force Global Strike Command, Air Combat Command, Air Force Reserve Command and Air National Guard teams against one another to accomplish feats using modern tools, tactics and technologies. This tough competition demonstrates Air Force Global Strike’s “credibility and lethality to our nation, our allies and to the world,” said Gen. Anthony Cotton, commander of Air Force Global Strike Command (2021-2022). Sierra says all teams get exactly 30 days to train for the big event that will be September 11-15. So she is currently spending much of her time rucking through the hottest parts of the day in eastern Wyoming. The work is grueling, but Sierra seems to live a life intent on bettering herself and anyone who is around her. This is actually what draws her to Health4Heroes. Challenges and supportive groups give “people a chance to find other people who can help and understand where they are,” she says. “I like how Health4Heroes gets people active and out there.”