A Hazen-native Marine was injured in combat last week, but will be coming back to the United States soon.

Jason Frei, a 1994 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy in Anapolis, Md., was in a light utility vehicle in al-Nasiriyah, Iraq, when it was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. Frei lost his right hand two inches below the wrist and suffers from a perforated ear drum.

Frei's mother, Marlene, lives in Bismarck. She said after graduation from the Naval Academy, he enlisted in the Marines. He was serving as captain of the Alpha Battery 1st Battalion 11th Marines at the time of the injury. His wife, Valerie, and children, Robbie, 3, and Molly, 2, live in Oceanside, Calif. He is stationed at Camp Pendleton near there.

Marlene Frei said she is a "Marine mom" and knew her son would be in danger, but supported him and supports President Bush and the decisions he is making.

"It's just what you do when you're in the military," she said.

Jason Frei had been wearing a flak jacket and helmet, which protected him from worse injury, but he lay in the field for an hour and 40 minutes, being treated by a medic until hostilities died down enough to bring in a Humvee to transport him back to his unit. He had surgery in the field because a sandstorm prevented an immediate return to Kuwait City, Marlene Frei said. He is now at a hospital in Germany. She said he is in high spirits and optimistic. She believes the end goal is for him to use a prosthetic hand.

"It was scary not knowing where he was, but we knew he was being taken care of," Marlene Frei said. Saturday was the first time she'd talked to her son since learning of his injury.

She said she is happy her son will soon be back in the United States, but is still concerned for the soldiers left behind, especially the 130 soldiers her son was in charge of.

"They are part of our family," she said.

Marlene Frei said she did not know when she would be able to talk to her son again.

"He's a captain, and he would like the enlisted men to get a chance to talk to their families first," she said.

Jason Frei graduated from Hazen High School in 1990 and received an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy. He joined the Marine Corps after finishing at the academy in 1994. He had been overseas since early February.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)