On May 17, 1917, shortly after the United States entered World War I, Douglass enlisted in the United States Army. He served as a captain in the Quartermaster Corps's construction division. He was initially charged with responsibility for sewers, sewage disposal and cantonments at Leon Springs, Texas (near San Antonio). He was next put in charge of the construction of Army hospitals at Leon Springs as well as U.S. Army General Hospital No. 7 at Roland Park, Baltimore, Maryland and Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan. He received his discharge from the Army in June 1919.
