Coast Artillery Camp with Basic Training?

I am currently looking for information concerning my great-uncle, Leo Luther Waltman. All I know is that he enlisted in the Army in January of 1942. He had been living in Turlock, California for around 2 years by that time, and it appears he enlisted with a friend, Jack E. Borland (they both enlisted on the same day, were both from California, and have a picture in training posing together). He was at Camp Callan by March 1, 1942 with Borland and by August of that year he was already a Corporal. Would he have undergone basic training at Camp Callan? The caption of the photo say that he and Borland were at Callan scarcely a month after they enlisted, but everything I checked says that the installation trained Coast Artillery and AA gunners. If anyone has any idea of what MOS he could've held or what unit he might've belonged with, that'd be great to share it with me as well.








Leo L. Waltman (right) with Jack E. Borland, Camp Callan, March 1, 1942

Leo in Westwood, CA, August 1942

 

My dad went the same route. Coast Artillery to AA and finally to chemical 4.2s.

 

fantastic pictures........amazing how many pics from those years...I'm thinking cameras were the new technology, like iphones/etc, and lots of people loved doing that....my dad's family was not rich, but we have many pics of them

 

Well what I'm debating is why he was at Camp Callan a month after enlistment. I'm not extremely familiar with the Army training system of the time, so would he say "Oh, I want to be a Coast Artilleryman" and be shipped off to Callan for all of his training (including basic)? It doesn't seem likely to me, as I believe that one was given Basic Training and then sent off to other locations for specialized schools. I could be wrong about that, or maybe in the hullabaloo following Pearl Harbor enlistees were trained wherever possible.

 

I would say, by March of 1942, the Coastal Artillery on the Pacific side was well trained having been active for about a year. Adding new soldiers to regular units for training probably made it easier and cheaper. By March of '43, training was going on all over southern California in preparation for the invasion. All new vehicles and equipment, and not even the stuff they had for D-day, got all new stuff in England. So in '42, all they really needed were the bodies to start filling the new Battalion strength Units they were planning for and activated in early '43. A lot of Regiments were re-organized to Bn's. My Dad took lots of pictures from this time period.

Photo March, 1943 Yakima, Washington