Heather Lynn Johnsen is a former U.S. Army soldier and former member of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, best known as the highly prestigious "The Old Guard" or Honor Guard Company sentinel of Company E, 4th Battalion.
[1][3] In 1991 after graduating high school, Johnsen joined the US Army Reserves, serving as a personnel administrative specialist.
[1] In 1994, the Secretary of the Army ruled that women soldiers could serve on the 24 hour/7 days a week Tomb Sentinel squad for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington), a historic US monument at Arlington National Cemetery which honors the unidentified remains of three combatants from World War I, World War II and the Korean War.
She became a military police soldier attached to Echo company honor guard, 3rd U.S. Infantry Division.
[7] [1][2] Johnsen was the first woman among the then-389 soldiers who have received the prestigious tomb guard identification badge since its creation in 1958.