Photos: Afghanistan Marines

The shadows of other members of the 3rd Battalion, 5th Regiment are reflected on a memorial photograph of Lance Cpl. Jose Maldonado, 21, in the company headquarters building at Camp Pendleton.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Dog tags are draped over an inverted rifle, part of a memorial set up at Camp Pendleton. The Three-Five had a daunting task: Push into areas of Afghanistan where the British had not gone, areas where Taliban dominance was uncontested, where bomb makers lash together explosives to kill and terrorize in Sangin and neighboring Kandahar province.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Marine widow Kait Wyatt, 22, cares for her newborn son, Michael, at their home at Camp Pendleton as her friend, whose husband is deployed, carries her child in the kitchen. Wyatt gave birth the day after learning that her husband, Cpl. Derek Wyatt, 25, had been killed.  (Christina House / For The Times)

Lance Cpl. Juan Dominguez, 26, left, practices using a biometric prosthetic arm with Todd Love, also from Camp Pendleton, at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.  (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Dominguez was injured when he slipped down an embankment while on patrol in Afghanistan, landing on an improvised explosive device.  (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Dominguez had dreamed of going into combat as a Marine since he was barely out of grade school. After the explosion that injured him, he said, “I remember crying out for my mother and then crying out for morphine. I remember them putting my legs on top of me.”  (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

1st Lt. James Byler is greeted by well-wishers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.  (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Byler does core-strengthening exercises, including lifting weights on an unsteady surface, as part of his physical therapy at Walter Reed. Byler lost both his legs in a roadside bombing in Afghanistan. Left, Marine Cpl. Kenneth Swartz of Camp Pendleton, who also lost his legs in the war.  (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Two months after the bombing, Byler is undergoing intensive physical and occupational therapy at Walter Reed.  (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Byler’s mother, Janet, accompanies him on some of his appointments at Walter Reed. An X-ray of his hand remains on the computer screen after his exam.  (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)