John Phillip Hoagland was born on June 15, 1947. He was the son of Alvin Bruce Hoagland.

John was a War photographer/journalist who was killed while on assignment in El Salvador. He was noted for his documentation on civil conflicts in Nicaragua, Lebanon, and El Salvador.

At the time of his death, John Hoagland was a contract photographer for Newsweek. On March 16, 1984, John Hoagland and Robert Nickelsberg of Time magazine, along with a few cameramen from CBS News, were entering an area of danger along a road between San Salvador and Suchitoto, El Salvador. The area had been restricted because of multiple gun fights starting, but the journalists were allowed entry "at their own risk" to reach the city of Suchitoto. Hoagland and company knew that the area made them vulnerable to ambushes. They entered the area and were ambushed, although there is no evidence as by who. The news teams took cover among small hills that were covered in grass, and as Hoagland went to kneel down he yelled that he had been hit. A single bullet from a large caliber M-60 weapon, as supplied by the US government to the El Salvadoran government, which hit Hoagland in his back, caused him to bleed out. The bullets continued to fly, kicking dust up as they swept past. Hoagland had died merely 15 seconds after being hit, but no one knew until after the firefight had been broken up by the Salvadoran army. The Salvadoran army fired an M-60 machine gun from across the street directly at the photographers taking cover in the brush. After the shooting stopped, one of the Salvadoran soldiers came over to the photographers and attempted to take the clothes off of Hoagland so he could disguise himself as a civilian once the approaching FMLN guerrillas came off the hill and attempted to capture them. Most of the Salvadoran soldiers had already retreated south along the road.

John's body was cremated and scattered in the Pacific Ocean off San Diego Coast, CA.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com, en.wikipedia.org