Ex-Fort Gordon soldier helps fight against Boko Haram

Army captain has made several trips to African nations.

When the cross-Mediterranean flight set returned its wheels to solid ground, U.S. Army Capt. Douglas Crutchley gathered his belongings and prepared to step onto an unfamiliar continent with a mysterious reputation back home.

Crutchley spent eight years of his military career at Fort Gordon and his parents relocated to Augusta early during that period. The family who has called Augusta home for nearly 15 years had typical words of advice before their son landed in Africa for the first time.

“They told me to enjoy the experience,” Crutchley said. “But they also asked me to be careful.”

Crutchley said he went into the trip with an open mind but was skeptical of what life would look like in Africa. He said there wasn’t a lot of media coverage of Africa in the United States and the coverage that did exist was negative.

“It was intimidating at first because coming from the West you see news that is 99 percent negative. What you see is instability in Africa and that’s what most American’s perception of the continent are,” he said.

Crutchley’s first mission to the continent was in October 2016. Since then, he has deployed on weeklong excursions, sometimes several times a month. His most recent mission in Cameroon was to help plan and oversee communications infrastructure and strategy during training for the Multination Joint Task Force.

The task force is composed of units from Chad, Benin, Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria. Their mission is the eradication of extremist group Boko Haram. Crutchley’s assignments have taken him to Uganda, Ethiopia and Ghana. His most recent mission was his fourth in Cameroon.

He said the initial time period after landing was a bit of culture shock, but he said he adapted quickly.

“It was almost winter when I left Italy for the first Cameroon mission, and Cameroon is nearly on the Equator so the temperature change was pretty extreme,” he said. “It was a culture shock because I really didn’t know what to expect, but after seeing the people in the airport, you realize that Africa is more westernized than people give it credit for. There is a dangerous reputation for Africa, but I haven’t seen one violent act in all the time I’ve spent here. Which is probably more than I could say about the U.S.”

More than experiencing food and national culture, Crutchley said he connected with the multinational soldiers because of a shared resolve.

“You see the resolve of the Cameroonian, Nigerian, Chad, and all the Lake Chad basin members and how they are willing to take the fight to Boko Haram,” he said.

Crutchley said, “Just being a part of countering terrorism in any form around the world, more so when it’s as infamous as the Boko Haram group, gives you a very strong sense of pride.”

Though now stationed in Italy and deploying on trans-Mediterranean missions, Crutchley said there are things he looks forward to when he comes back to the United States.