He was promoted to rank of corporal in medical corps at Fort Hancock, N.J. Dugan supervised French, German, Spanish and Russian classes for soldiers.
Dugan received the Grand Prix, Cannes International Film Festival award for the documentary The Silent World in 1956.
James Dugan died June 3, 1967, in Panama City, FL following a pressurization accident during a deep dive in an experimental submersible.
A collection of James Dugan's papers are held in the J. Welles Henderson Archives & Library of Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia, PA.
They date from 1880 to 1993 and are a collection of papers of James and Ruth Dugan on diving, marine science, and other related topics.