Daniel Perle/KJZZ

More than 300 Arizona families reunited this Memorial Day weekend as a unit of National Guard troops returned home from a year-long deployment in Afghanistan. 

Members of the 1-158th Bushmasters Infantry battalion reunited with their families at the Papago Park Military Reservation. Giovanni Rivera communicated regularly with her husband during his deployment, but had to put his absence out of her mind as best as she could since she was raising their baby. Giovanni’s daughter will meet her father today. 

“I actually try not to make it the forefront of my mind actually I don’t want to think about it too hard and the past and I was so busy with her, trying to raise my daughter.” 

The unit sustained no wounded or killed member during its deployment. One of its core duties was helping to train the Afghan National police.

More than 300 Arizona families reunited this Memorial Day weekend as a unit of National Guard troops returned home from a year-long deployment in Afghanistan. 

Members of the 1-158th Bushmasters Infantry battalion reunited with their families at the Papago Park Military Reservation. Giovanni Rivera communicated regularly with her husband during his deployment, but had to put his absence out of her mind as best as she could since she was raising their baby. Giovanni’s daughter will meet her father today. 

“I actually try not to make it the forefront of my mind actually I don’t want to think about it too hard and the past and I was so busy with her, trying to raise my daughter.” 

The unit sustained no wounded or killed member during its deployment. One of its core duties was helping to train the Afghan National police.