U.S. Army Sgt. Alfredo Miranda, a soldier deploying

U.S. Army Sgt. Alfredo Miranda, a soldier deploying with Task Force Scorpion, holds his son Cameron during a ceremony celebrating the unit’s validation for their upcoming deployment to Afghanistan, May, 10. Task Force Scorpion is the first Reserve component to take over the NATO training mission in Afghanistan.
The Task Force’s mission for the deployment will be to conduct training for the Afghan national security forces around the country. This mission, which was previously conducted only by active duty soldiers, is intended to help the Afghan NSF maintain and control security throughout the country. This is Miranda’s second deployment. For his first deployment he conducted detainee operations in Iraq. If he were to pass on one piece of advice to his soldiers who are deploying for the first time it would be to maintain a positive attitude because each day down is one more day closer to home, said Miranda.