Stogran graduated from the Royal Military College of Canada in 1980 and was commissioned in Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry. His initial employment was with that regiment's Third Battalion in CFB Esquimalt in British Columbia. In the latter half of the 1980s, he was employed as the regimental adjutant of the Canadian Airborne Regiment in CFB Petawawa in Ontario. In 1993, Stogran served in the Bosnian War as a Military Observer. He was subsequently awarded a Mentioned-in-Dispatches for courage under fire. In 1994, he had a public disagreement with United Nations commander Sir Michael Rose over the military strategy in Bosnia.