Navy Cross Expected for Marine from San Clemente

Navy Cross Expected for Marine from San Clemente
by Stacie N. Galang
Jun 15, 2011

San Clemente residents Jim and Carla Hogan show a photo of their son Lance Cpl. Donald J. Hogan who died August 26, 2009 while serving with the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines in Afghanistan. Photo by Stacie N. Galang

Somewhere in the cornfield the enemy hid beneath the stalks.

Lance Cpl. Donald J. Hogan spotted a kite string pulled taut and quickly realized it was attached to the improvised explosive device he and his fellow Marines had been sent to find. Hogan lunged at one of the members of his unit to shove him out of harm’s way.

The device didn’t trip and the enemy continued fumbling to set it off. Hogan went back to the road to warn the others in his patrol, yelling toward them to turn back.

The rifleman in the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, would die that day — August 26, 2009 in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. Four other Marines and one interpreter suffered injuries in the blast but lived.

Hogan, who moved to San Clemente with his family while in high school, is now in line for the Navy Cross, an honor second only to the Medal of Honor.

The 20-year-old’s split-second decision “saved a Marine’s life and allowed the rest of the squad to avoid the full brunt of the fragmentation,” according to the citation prepared for Hogan’s nomination for the Navy Cross.

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Navy Cross Expected for Marine from San Clemente