A funeral is scheduled today for Spc. Miguel L. Holmes, a Georgia National Guardsman who died in Afghanistan this month.
The military has not identified precisely what killed the 22-year-old soldier from Hinesville, saying only that he died from a "non-combat incident" in Nangarhar Province and that his death remains under investigation.
Holmes served with the 1st Battalion of the 118th Field Artillery Regiment, 48th Infantry Brigade Combat Team. The brigade is training Afghan security forces in a restive part of the country near the Pakistan border. The unit’s nine-month deployment began in January.
Holmes' remains will be interred with military honors at Anderson Cemetery in Hinesville following a private funeral service at Dorchester Funeral Home in Midway.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Spc. Miguel Holmes’ family and those close to him after the tragic event that took place in Afghanistan,” said Lt. Col. Rodney Tatum, Holmes’ battalion commander. “Our priority right now is to take care of his family, ensuring they have all the resources they need during this time.”
RELATED: Georgia National Guardsman dies from non-combat incident in Afghanistan
Maj. Gen. Thomas Carden, Georgia’s adjutant general, said such fatalities prompt the Guard take “a hard look at everything that we are doing to make sure we did everything we could do and how do we get better.”
“We are heartbroken any time we lose a soldier, and this case is no exception to that,” Carden said. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family. We always look at every one of these incidents with respect to: Is there anything we could have done better? Regardless of the circumstances, any time we lose somebody, that is one too many.”
Holmes was one of five U.S. troops to have died from "non-combat" incidents in the span of three weeks. They include Pfc. Michael Thomason, 28, of Lincoln Park, Mich., who died April 29 in Syria; Spc. Michael Osorio, 20, of Horseshoe Bend, Idaho, who died April 23, in Iraq; Spc. Ryan Riley, 22, from Richmond, Ky., who died April 20 in Iraq; and Staff Sgt. Albert Miller, 24, of Richmond, N.H., who died April 19 in Qatar.
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