Private MacDougall was a member of Company L, 3rd Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. He was taken Prisoner of War while fighting the enemy near Kunu-ri, North Korea on November 28, 1950 and died in a prison camp in North Korea on February 28, 1951. His remains were not recovered. His name is inscribed on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial.