Cole's flight with Blue Angels a 'once-in-a-lifetime opportunity'

DULUTH -- Wild defenseman Ian Cole simply wasn't missing this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
A few weeks back, Shane Hudella, the President and Founder of United Heroes League, was in search of an American-born player who would be willing to ride along with the U.S. Navy's legendary Blue Angels flight squadron this week at the Duluth Air Show.
Hudella reached out to Cole, with whom he and UHL has partnered with for nearly a decade to gauge his interest and see if he'd be in town.

Cole returned to his home in Denver after the season ended a couple of weeks ago, but said he do whatever it took to get back to Minnesota.
"I said, 'I don't care where I am, I will walk to Duluth if I have to,'" Cole said. "And it was worth it."
Two of Cole's most passionate causes away from the rink are working with kids and working with military families. That is what first attracted him to working with the United Heroes League all the way back when he was still playing college hockey at the University of Notre Dame.
Over the years, UHL has provided more than $12 million worth of free sports equipment, game tickets, cash grants, skill development camps and special experiences to military families all over the United States.
UHL's mission is to keep military kids active and healthy through sports while their parents serve our country, and to date, the organization has served more than 50,000 military families by keeping or starting their kids in sports.
Hudella actually launched the program with the assistance of former Wild players Brent Burns and Derek Boogaard, known then as "Defending the Blue Line."
What started as a hockey-centric charitable endeavor quickly grew in size and scope. Because so many Minnesota-based players took an interest, when they'd leave and go to their teams, other players and other athletes in other sports took interest as well.
UHL now has a foothold in more than 20 major cities around the country and athlete ambassadors in half a dozen sports.

"It has gotten bigger than I ever could have imagined," Hudella said. "In 2008, back when Burnsie and Boogaard were with the Wild and the idea was kind of born to help a few local military families with hockey ... never in my wildest dreams did I think we'd have over 130 pro ambassadors in six different sports and have representatives in 24 major markets around the U.S., giving away between $3 and $5 million in benefits to men and women that I've had the privilege to serve with.
"I'm living the dream every day."
Cole's involvement stems from his time at Notre Dame, but his passion for military causes goes back decades. Both of his grandfathers served in the military, with one, Tom Meagher, in the Marines and the other, John Cole, in the Navy.
John Cole served in the European theater during World War II.
That connection to the Armed Services made it easy to connect with Hudella's burgeoning organization early in Cole's NHL career too, when he played for the St. Louis Blues and they'd come to Minnesota.
With no connection to Minnesota, Cole would help out and attend events when they'd happen in his markets over the years, but when Cole was traded to the Wild back in January, their working relationship really had a chance to take off.
Being traded is never easy for a player, especially in-season, but coming to a place where he already had friendly faces nearby made it easier for Cole. And having a deep connection to UHL, based in the State of Hockey, was a nice side benefit as well.
"Absolutely, it was for sure," Cole said. "Just the ability to be more hands on and do a little more was something that really excited me. Trades are never easy and they're always pretty uncomfortable, but I think knowing [Hudella], knowing some of the guys on the team, knowing some of the Notre Dame guys from Minnesota, there were a lot of connections here that made me feel very comfortable, and [Hudella] was certainly one of them."
Hudella could barely contain his excitement when he found out Cole was coming to the Wild.
"Yeah, I loved it," Hudella said with a big smile. "He's helped us out for years, everything from meeting families after a game where someone was coming home from a deployment or if they have some tough circumstance, to days like [Wednesday], helping out with appearances or anything we ask."
While in Duluth, Cole met the family of SSG Andrew Leino of the Minnesota National Guard, including his wife, Maraya and their son, Odin, who came to watch Cole during his nearly hour-long flight in a Blue Angel, F-18 fighter jet, piloted by Lt. Julius Bratton.
Cole hopped onto the jet bursting with energy, but the g-forces during the flight took a huge toll on his well-trained body.
Afterward, Cole sunk into a leather chair inside the terminal and could barely move, while Bratton, with his more than 1,800 hours of experience inside an F-18, was the same bubbly, energetic man he was at the start of the day.
And Cole was his third passenger of the afternoon.

"Very physically demanding, which I don't think people realize. It's one of those things that I know I didn't realize until now," Cole said. "I was cashed, absolutely shot, just fatigued.
"But it was so much fun. It was so cool. Really, really glad I did it. And it shows just how in tune these men and women are with their bodies, very dialed in, very in shape. They can do this all day long and twice on Sundays, and I go up for an hour and I'm exhausted."
For Hudella, the opportunity to coordinate a flight with the Blue Angels marks one of the best parts about his job. An Army veteran himself, Hudella has been able to arrange partnerships with all branches of the military to make sure that military families are supported with some of the necessities that can often times be overlooked.
That includes the mental wellbeing of children who can go months without seeing a parent defending our country.
"We have our rivalries, we have our jokes that we tell about the different branches," Hudella said. "But at the end of the day, we're all one team, it's one fight and we absolutely have each other's backs during deployment, and often times we get to work together on some pretty unique things in the civilian community like we were able to with this."