Veterans give community A+ for hosting successful pheasant hunt

    Hunting conditions may have earned a low grade, but a group of veterans here last weekend gave the community an A+ for hosting them.
    Steve Hogan of Aurora, who lost his U.S. Marine son Hunter in Afghanistan in 2012, has since formed a foundation in his son’s memory.
    That foundation organized the hunt here last weekend, but Hogan said it couldn’t have happened without the community.
    “There was no way we could have walked all the fields that were donated to us” on which to hunt, Hogan said.
    “People were still calling and texting us to offer more ground on Saturday,” he added.
    And, it wasn’t just the hunting ground made available by local landowners
    Hogan said a few of them went out to eat at Enders Friday night. When he went up to pay, it had already been taken care of.
    It was like that all weekend.
    The group of veterans arrived Thursday night, all of them with Veterans Administration service-connected disabilities.
    Twelve were military veterans and a 13th was a first responder, a group to which the Hunter HD Hogan Foundation hunts were extended this year.
    They came from Idaho, Ohio, Missouri, Colorado, Iowa and Nebraska.
    Hogan said most of them were first-time pheasant hunters, and a couple had never hunted at all.
    To send them back home with the experiences they had here will be memorable, he said.
    “Everyone had an unbelievable time,” he said.
    In addition to pheasant hunting, the group also had the opportunity to get in some target and blue rock shooting if they wanted.
    They visited the Chase County Veterans Memorial in Imperial and the Imperial VFW Post.
    Several meals were shared, which may have been among the highlights, said Brad Moline, who is Hogan’s first cousin and helped arrange for the weekend activities.
    The meals and visiting allowed the veterans to get to know each other.
    None of them had met before last weekend, according to Moline.
    “It was really neat to see them exchanging phone numbers,” Moline said.
    Several veterans were from the Grand Junction, Colorado area, who didn’t know each other before last weekend.
    They now have some additional contacts back home, he said.
    Moline remarked at how many times the veteran hunters said, “What an amazing community you have.”
    “They saw a lot of love and appreciation here,” Moline said.
    Hogan said some of the veterans were almost embarrassed by the many comments of appreciation they received while in Chase County.
    “This is one of the most patriotic communities,” Hogan said.
    It hit Moline personally when he realized that it’s easy to say, “I appreciate your service” when meeting a veteran.
    However, until you spend time with them, “with veterans who use a cane or may have some mental challenges, you don’t really appreciate what they’ve been through,” he said.
    That’s what the purpose of these hunts are all about, Moline believes, so the veterans can be around each other and share similar experiences.
    Hogan said he’s been organizing these hunts for veterans, as well as Gold Star children, for about five years.
    Last weekend, the foundation provided all the ammo, hunting permits, travel costs and hunting gear needed. The foundation also owns several shotguns that were made available.
    Hogan asks the veterans who participate in his hunts to sign their names and service details on the stock of the shotguns. When one gets filled, it’s auctioned off “to raise more money for the foundation,” he said.
    Hogan said it was never his intention to start a foundation.
    Originally, in lieu of flowers at the time of his son’s death, he hoped to use that money for a scholarship.
    It’s just blossomed from there.
    In addition to the hunting weekends, the foundation has awarded more than $350,000 in scholarships.
    Helping put on last weekend’s activities here were a number of landowners, two Hogan Foundation sponsors and Base Camp 40 volunteers.
    Base Camp 40 is a nonprofit in western Colorado that started its service work with taking veterans on elk hunts. Hogan said they’ve expanded from there to programs including fishing trips and more.
    “We reciprocate with them a lot” in our hunts, he said.
    Hogan admitted there have been some frustrating times for him after his son’s death and before the foundation was organized.
    But he’s found joy in the work of the foundation.
    “I’ve been so lucky through our tragedy to be able to carry on HD’s legacy and pay it forward,” he said.
    Moline said a lot of people and businesses contributed to make last weekend happen, but he also looks at the big picture about our veterans.
    “What we provided here is insignificant to what they have done,” he said.