James Anthony “Jim” Dougalas, the son of Anthony and Amelia (Wickman) Dougalas, was born on July 24, 1938 in Luzerne, PA, an area of Northeastern Pennsylvania that Jim always called “God’s Country.” Athletic and strong, with an exceptional ability to throw and catch a football, he was a 1995 All Scholastic football player for Luzerne High School. He was a competitor and fighter. At the insistence of his high school football coach, he applied to West Point and was appointed by Congressman Daniel Flood. While a cadet, he won brigade championships in heavyweight wrestling and boxing, events which were not easily done. He defeated many young men in the peak of their physical condition. Jim was a member of the 1958 Army Football Team, the last West Point football team to have an undefeated season. Being an athlete was not his only passion. He read all the paperbacks his roommates and he picked up, as well as every mailed issue of his hometown area newspaper, the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader. It was said that he read all the public notices too, just to stay in touch and up to date with what was happening in “God’s Country.”

At graduation, Jim selected the Infantry branch. Airborne and Ranger training were his first duties. His was assigned to Fort Bragg, NC, where he added a spouse, Miss Martha Klockgether from Kinston, PA. They celebrated the birth of their first son, and all three of them went Army traveling to Germany via the North Atlantic on the USNS General Simon B. Buckner. Their assignment was to a small “Kaserne” (barracks), Murnau in Bavaria. This was a two-year tour near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, at the foot of the Alps, a place known and well-regarded by all Army personnel. Next, Jim and Martha took their son and recently arrived daughter to Berlin, where Jim took command of a Berlin brigade company. Upon leaving Garmisch for Berlin, they demonstrated the old U.S. Army adage, “Nothing very good or very bad lasts very long in the U.S. Army.” While in Berlin, they welcomed their third child, a boy, and also celebrated Jim’s company being awarded an Outstanding Unit Citation in 1965. 

Vietnam loomed large as a destination for most West Point graduates of the 1960s, and Jim was assigned two tours, earning two Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart, due to losing a part of his left hand. Jim was an advisor to a Vietnamese Ranger company. An avid golfer, he noted gratefully that his injured hand would only require a slight, small adjustment in his golf club grip. After an Infantry “CARS” course, Jim was at Hofstra University in New York as an ROTC instructor, where he had the strength and stamina to meet the challenge and quietly endure the civilian anti-war protests of the 1ate 1960s. Next, he served as a military instructor at La Salle Military Academy on Long Island, New York, welcomed the birth of their fourth child, and prepared for his second Vietnam tour.

In 1972, Tropical Storm Agnes interrupted his second Vietnam tour. He was Red Cross emergency evacuated and sent back to Luzerne to assist the restoration of his hometown area. Knowing Jim and how he loved “God’s Country,” as well as his up-to-date knowledge of his hometown area, led local officials to seek his help in partnership with other U.S. military disaster assistance. Severe flooding of the Susquehanna and Lackawanna rivers caused major damage in the Wilkes-Barre area. Jim used his contacts, leadership, and pleasant “can-do” attitude to help the area salvage their existence and return to a degree of normalcy. He created and maintained many hometown friends during this crisis.

In 1974, after assignments in Monterey, CA and at Fort Gulick, Panama, Jim left active duty but maintained his military association in the U.S. Army Reserve. He went back home to “God’s Country” and began his second career with the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections.

In addition to being a golfer, Jim was a youth sports coach for many years. In a late-in-life recognition of his athletic and public accomplishments, Jim was inducted into the Luzerne County Sports Hall of Fame in 2002. He devotedly practiced his faith at Holy Name/St. Mary’s Parish Community in Swoyersville, PA, where he was a choir member and a member of American Legion Post 644. 

After retiring from the state of Pennsylvania position in 2001, Jim and Martha planned to travel across the USA, the land and country he had served. A type of cancer associated with Agent Orange exposure ended these plans on January 4, 2006, when Jim, with his last fight and collapsing strength, lost his life. 

Well Done, Jim; Be Thou at Peace.