Cole Hogan Jr.

A red, white and blue statue of a lion greeted vehicles along Baytree Road the morning after President Barack Obama announced the death of terrorist Osama bin Laden.

The lion has long been the mascot of Valdosta State University’s chapter of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. Through the years, the fraternity has painted the lion various colors for various reasons. But the stars-and-stripes pattern accompanied with “USA” attracted special attention this week. The Valdosta Daily Times featured the lion on Tuesday’s front page.

But this red, white and blue lion represents something more than American exuberance at the death of bin Laden. Fraternity brothers painted the lion to honor a Valdosta SAE who died in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the Pentagon.

They painted it for Major Wallace Cole Hogan Jr.

“On May 2, after hearing of the death of Osama bin Laden, a group of our brothers painted our mascot, a large marble lion named Leo, the colors of the American flag,” says Luke Donohue, SAE VSU chapter treasurer.

The fraternity elected to paint Leo in honor of those whose lives were impacted by 9/11, as well as those who have served and still serve in the wars ever since.

“Especially dear to the heart of Sigma Alpha Epsilon was the memory of Cole Hogan,” Donohue says. “As a past president of our chapter and as a soldier in the U.S. Army, Cole represented all that we as a fraternity strive to achieve. When Cole lost his life in the terrorist attacks on 9/11, his death reverberated through our brotherhood and his family.”

The fraternity has dedicated Leo to the life of Cole Hogan.

“It is our highest honor to call ourselves brothers of someone so courageous and honorable and, though his life was lost, his memory is not,” Donohue says. “It is times such as these that we could not be more proud to be members of Sigma Alpha Epsilon and to be Americans.”

ARMY THROUGH AND THROUGH

On the Arlington Cemetery website, Cole Hogan is described as “Army through and through.”

He served as a Green Beret, in the Special Forces, and as a general’s aide at the Pentagon.

“He was a very gung-ho military man,” Wallace C. Hogan Sr., said after Cole’s death. “He would have stayed in the Army until they kicked him out.”

The Army’s discipline appealed to Hogan. “He liked having to do things right,” Wallace C. Hogan Sr. told an Arlington interviewer nearly 10 years ago.

A Macon native, Cole was born Oct. 9, 1960, the son of Wallace and Jane Hogan. He attended elementary school at Tattnall Square Academy and high school at First Presbyterian Day School.

He had joined the Army National Guard upon graduating from Valdosta State College. During the Persian Gulf War, Hogan became regular Army. He had been stationed in Hawaii and Panama before being assigned to the Pentagon.

“He super-excelled,” Maj. Gen. Robert Hughes, then-deputy commander of the 1st Army and former commander of the Georgia National Guard’s 48th Infantry Brigade, told a newspaper in September 2001. “This guy was something. He lived a different kind of life.”

“It was in Panama that he met his wife-to-be, Pat, an Air Force doctor,” according to the Arlington website dedicated to “Remembering the Lost.” “When Hogan fell ill, Pat was assigned to treat him, his father said. The two were together in Panama for a year.” They married on his birthday in October 1999.

In Washington, D.C., Hogan often bicycled to work from his home in the Alexandria area of Fairfax, Va.

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Hogan sat at his desk in the Pentagon.

Traveling 530 miles per hour, according to the 9/11 Commission report, American Flight 77 slammed into the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m.

The impact killed all aboard the plane. It killed numerous Pentagon personnel on the ground, including Major Cole Hogan.

His Pentagon office has been described as Flight 77’s point of impact. His remains had to be identified through DNA. There was no viewing at the service before burial at Arlington Cemetery.

LIFE IN VALDOSTA

Gary Hudson of Athens looked out of a New York City window this past Sunday night. With news of bin Laden’s death everywhere, Hudson had his eyes on the Statue of Liberty. But his mind was on someone else.

“The first thing I thought about was Hogan,” Hudson told The Times last week. “Somewhere, I just knew he was giving one of those Special Forces’ booyahs!”

Cole Hogan was older than Gary Hudson when they both attended Valdosta State College. Hogan had started at Valdosta State in the late ‘70s and graduated in the early ‘80s, Hudson and other fraternity brothers estimated. Hogan and Hudson were SAE brothers. They were also Baytree Manor roommates.

“It’s often easy in retrospect to look on people and exaggerate their qualities, but there was no exaggeration with Hogan,” Hudson says. “He was everything we remember him being.”

He was always patriotic. He had discipline before ever joining the National Guard. He was always focused. He was unstoppable, and his energy was contagious.

“I never heard him complain about anything,” Hudson says. “If he was sick, he didn’t say anything about being sick. He just went on with his day.”

After college, Hogan kept in touch with his friends. It wasn’t on a daily basis. It wasn’t the type of contact prevalent now with Facebook. Instead, if Hogan saw something that reminded him of a buddy, he’d take a moment to write a quick note and mail it. He’d call. He visited with friends.

After his death, Hudson and other SAE brothers from the Valdosta years gathered in Virginia for Hogan’s funeral services.

Andy Greenway of Macon was among those friends. He visited Hogan’s parents and wife in Macon during those dark days in September 2001. He flew back to Virginia with Pat Hogan. He stood ready to help the family of his fallen fraternity brother, a man he will never forget.

“Cole was just a great guy, a great person, a good person,” Greenway says.

Greenway started school prior to Hogan’s arrival, but few could help but notice Hogan’s arrival in Valdosta.

“Cole made going to school at Valdosta a lot of fun for a lot of people,” Greenway says. “We loved Valdosta. Cole loved it and the fraternity.”

Hearing the news of bin Laden’s death, Greenway immediately thought of his old friend. He also thought of Hogan’s mother who still lives in Macon. Hogan’s father has since passed away.

From Valdosta, Greenway also learned of the SAE lion painted red, white and blue in Cole Hogan’s honor. He obtained photos of the lion.

“I took the photos of the lion to Cole’s mom,” Greenway says. “I wasn’t sure how she would react, but she loved it. She really loved it.”