McDowell was a graduate of the Defense Language Institute, the Foreign Area Specialist Program, the Defense Intelligence Course, the Armed Forces Staff College, the Command and General Staff College, and a two-year Soviet-East Europe Advanced Foreign Area Studies Program at the doctoral level as one of a small number of State Department, military, and intelligence agency personnel selected to participate in the program known as Detachment R. He received a BS degree from Texas A&M University, an MA from Columbia University in 1953 and in 1956 a PhD from Texas A&M University. McDowell retired as a colonel.