Meet the Team
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LORI RINCK
FOUNDER
(Good Idea Fairy)
Lori is a mother of 2, a homeschool hippie that spends her days learning alongside her daughters at home. She will find any way that she can to be outside, biking, hiking, jogging or nordic skiing. Lori served 12 years on active duty in the Army. She began as an E-1 Air Traffic Controller and finshed as an H-60 (Blackhawk) Pilot. She served in OIF 05-06 and OEF 08-09 Kingsmen Opera Non Verba , Air Assault!
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KRIS SEARLES
Kris is a husband and father of two. He served in the Army as a sniper and then worked on Search and Rescue teams in Wyoming. He is currently using his experiences from OIF to change lives using VTTV with Overwatch6, a non profit in Pinedale, WY.
Overwatch6 and Alongside have partnered up to sharpen one another’s swords. We choose to help more people together.
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MALENA MAGPIE
Our Quiet Warrior
Malena grew up on a ranch in SE Montana and walked on to the CSU Womens basketball team. After college she served 4 years active duty in the U.S Navy. She was stationed in San Diego and served on a DDG Destroyer working with ballistic missile defense teams off the coast of Iraq and Yemen.
She says she can land a helicopter better than Lori.
Life after the military for Malena meant coming home to Montana and marrying her high school sweetheart. They are now raising two amazing boys together in the Gallatin Valley.
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BRIAN RINCK
DIRECTOR OF THE PURSUIT
Bike Packer/Bread Maker (literally)
Brian flys for Travis County Star Flight of Austin, Texas and fathers 2 girls, pretty dang well.
He’s an endurance cyclist and a damn good cook!
If you see this born adventurer send his wife a 6 digit grid please…supper is ready
Brian started his career as a Russian Linguist and retired as a Chief Warrant Officer H-60 Blackhawk Pilot. Clearly he’s unintelligent.
He served in Iraq 06-07 and again OIF 09-10 as a medieval instructor pilot
Dustoff
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KRISTIN CLEVELAND
Director of Logic ( I meant logistics)
Kristin is from Belgrade, Montana and is a mother of 4, you read that right, four wonderful children, ages 5-13, and she is married to a retired A10 pilot that’s playing airline pilot now!
She served 7 years in the Air Force as a logistics officer and holds a BS in Microbiology. After her time serving as active military/military spouse she returned to her home state of Montana to enjoy the outdoors with her family. She spends her free time hiking, biking and skiing and a little hot yoga for the soul.
Kristin served two tours in OEF (Afghanistan) attached to the Army. As a veteran and a spouse she’s seen both perspectives.
We are so happy to have Kristin logisitisizing for us!
(We are also fully aware that is not a word).
The journey that brought us here….
In a suburban home in Montana, lived a family of four—a family that knew what it means to be a Veteran. And that family is mine.
While our two children do not remember my husband and I in uniform, they often see firsthand the trials we endured through our demeanor.
Going outside and doing physical activity has always brought us clarity and peace. Each time my husband leaves to bike pack on his own, I tell him to “come back better.” We both know he cannot come back the same way he left. This adrenaline has made him better every time.
Post Traumatic Stress presents in so many ways, still being discovered. And the ways we deal with it are as variable as the causes.
This is where Alongside comes in. If what my husband achieves alone on a bike pack trip makes him better, and this method has also impacted our family so much, why shouldn’t we be sharing this method with other Veterans or First Responders?
So Alongside Women Veterans Outreach was born, it was time for me to give back to myself and to others!
I asked my children “What if this time Mom walks out the door and Dad says, come back better”?
I am ready to find out, and I’d like to take you with me— Lori Rinck