When news came that his son had been killed in Afghanistan, the Rev. Michael Bogar shouted out his shock and denial.
He remembers his visceral reaction, a textbook stage of grief: “No, no — I don’t want to hear it.”
Army Cpl. Jason Bogar, 25, was among nine Americans killed July 13 when Taliban insurgents attacked a remote base near the border with Pakistan. In the days since, stark reality has replaced denial.
“His body came home yesterday, so far the hardest thing,” Bogar said Tuesday morning.
At a pancake restaurant in Lynnwood, his polite hello couldn’t hide a disoriented look of loss. But Bogar was having a better day. He was there to accept a priceless gift.
In less than a week, Edmonds artist Michael Reagan drew a portrait of Jason Bogar. Working from a photograph of the young soldier, Reagan has added one more name and one more face to what he calls the Fallen Heroes Project.
Since 2004, Reagan has given more than 1,200 portraits of American servicemen and women killed in Iraq or Afghanistan to loved ones across the country.
Tuesday morning, short on sleep, Reagan walked into the IHOP on 196th Street SW carrying the framed pencil sketch of Jason Bogar. Beneath the Army helmet, the eyes in the drawing are much like the father’s eyes.
With a hug, squeezing back tears, the 55-year-old Bogar accepted the likeness of his lost son.
“Thanks for letting me do that for you,” Reagan told the father. “When I heard about the nine who died, I went on the Web and read everything about Jason.”
As a small child, Jason Bogar lived in Everett. From 1985 until 1989, his father was pastor of Everett’s Pinehurst Community Church.
His parents divorced in 1990. Jason and his two sisters were raised mostly in Bothell. He attended Bothell High School before leaving school to join a federal Job Corps program in Mount Vernon. He trained as an apprentice electrician.
“He wasn’t too keen on high school,” Bogar said. At 17, his son joined the Army National Guard, based at Fort Lewis. When he died, he was on his third tour overseas, having served in Iraq in 2003 and Afghanistan in 2006 with the National Guard.
He had enlisted in the regular Army, and was serving in Afghanistan with the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, based in Italy.
His father remembers a skinny kid who was often a trickster. “Jason could be a pain, but there was never any malice,” said Bogar, a pastor at the Spiritual Enrichment Center of West Sound on Bainbridge Island.
In the military, he found discipline, along with a love of travel, photography and the people he encountered. “He was artistic, he had a creative side,” Bogar said. At a memorial in Italy for the nine who died last week, Bogar said his son was remembered as a humanitarian with a compassionate heart.
Jason Bogar was especially touched by the plight of women and children in war zones.
Carlene Cross, Jason Bogar’s mother, said her son “loved children, loved the little ones.”
“He was always slipping them candy, even money. He really loved those kids,” said Cross, of Seattle, a counselor at the University of Washington.
Both parents said their son, who was unmarried and didn’t have children, was driven to volunteer for dangerous duty to spare soldiers with families.
Cross recalled a trip to Montana when Jason was 5 or 6. He jumped off a couch at her sister’s house and complained that his foot hurt. Nearly a week later, it still bothered him. Back home in Everett, she took him to the hospital.
“When he jumped, there was a needle on the carpet. He had a needle in his foot. He was tough as a rock, even as a child,” Cross said. “He was so full of energy, he just couldn’t sit still.”
Reagan, a Vietnam veteran, hopes his portrait helps keep that spirit alive. “People get a picture, it gives them a place to focus that pain,” he said. “This project has changed my life. It defined why I came home from Vietnam.”
“What’s hardest, I see my little boy still,” said Bogar. “I know we’re on this earth to make souls. He built his soul in 25 years. Jason did what he had to do.”
Columnist Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460 or muhlstein@heraldnet.com.
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