Leana Lubbe hugs her son, U.S. Marine Sgt. Herman Lubbe, at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. Leana stayed with her son, who was wounded by an IED while fighting in Afghanistan, for five months after her husband was promoted and transferred to China.

Sgt. Herman Lubbe, a U.S. Marine from West Virginia, mugs for a photo in front of an incoming sandstorm in Afghanistan last May. One month later, Lubbe and several other Marines were severely wounded by an IED blast during a patrol through the Sangin Valley.

Herman Lubbe sent this photo from Afghanistan to his mom for Mother's Day. A month later, he was severely wounded in an IED explosion.