SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — It was the toughest day of Kim Olsen's life — the day she learned her 21-year-old son, Marine Lance Cpl. Nigel Olsen, was killed in Afghanistan March 4, 2010.

"He died 7,000 miles away without me by his side for a final embrace, a final opportunity to whisper in his ear, 'I love you, I love you, I love you,'" she said.

She was supposed to protect him at all cost, she said, but felt like she didn't do that. Now her greatest fear is that people will forget the sacrifice he and countless other men and women have made for this country. So she's found a way to honor them with special gold stars.

At his mother's home in Salem, a Marine flag now waves in the wind, and there's a gold star in the window, honoring Nigel's memory.

"He was a loyal friend, and his Marine buddies tell me he was a stellar Marine," Olsen said.

For her son, the Marines was his whole life, it was what he lived for.

"He was focused, very focused on military history, on military combats, military strategy, from the time he was little," she said.