Climber Profile: Sgt. Anthony G. MacDougall

Photo By Staff Sgt. Patricia McMurphy | Sgt. Anthony G. MacDougall prepares to take his students up the Gulkana Glacier during the Northern Warfare Training Center's Basic Mountaineering Course.  

FORT WAINWRIGHT, AK, UNITED STATES

04.30.2012

Story by Staff Sgt. Patricia McMurphy 

United States Army Alaska

FORT WAINWRIGHT, Alaska - Sgt. Anthony G. MacDougall, an infantryman serving as an instructor at the Northern Warfare Training Center, the Army’s premiere cold weather and mountaineering school in central Alaska, joined the Army because of a video he saw while visiting a recruiter.

“I wanted to jump out of airplanes,” MacDougall said. Although he has yet to jump from a single plane, he has found a new passion: arctic and mountain training.

The Ridgefield, Wash., native was one of the few instructors handpicked upon arrival to Alaska to go straight to the NWTC. Most of the instructors must be tested and found able to learn specialized skills and to effectively teach others the mentally and physically challenging tasks taught in the courses.

MacDougall did not have a lot of formal cold weather or mountain training prior to coming to Alaska, but he was accustomed to the cold wet weather of Washington and had done a lot of hiking over the years.

It’s rewarding duty, according to MacDougall.

“The opportunity to do cool things, like international trips, and to be able to graduate a squad - watching them learn and succeed … is a great feeling.” MacDougal said.

MacDougal said the courses are not for the weak. The courses offered at the NWTC are tough, both mentally and physically.
“Be prepared to walk –don’t take the summer course lightly” MacDougal said. “Too many soldiers think it’s going to be a ‘gimme’ course.”

MacDougal says being an instructor has given him the technical and tactical knowhow to be able to face the challenges ahead on the summit attempt on Mount McKinley.

He has climbed several mountains already, such as Rainbow Mountain, Panera Peak and various ridgelines in the eastern Alaskan mountain ranges.

MacDougal said that climbing McKinley is “the opportunity of a lifetime,” and with the Army’s support, it’s now a goal he can reach.
Summiting McKinley will take him twice as high as he has ever been on a climb, according to MacDougal.

“I like climbing.” he said. “[McKinley] should be a good experience and a good time, and now I can afford to stand on top of the world!”

• Date Taken: 04.30.2012
• Date Posted: 09.06.2012 14:41
• Story ID: 94322
• Location: FORT WAINWRIGHT, AK, US