Donald William Caman also began his military career in high school. He was in the ROTC, and in his Senior year he was a commissioned officer in Company C, Second Platoon. He was on the Boy's Rifle Team as well.
From the 1939 Scroll Yearbook of Herbert Hoover High School in Glendale, California.
Donald Caman, bottom photo, standing far left
Donald Caman, bottom photo, front row sitting, 6th from the left
Donald attended the Citizen's Military Training camp in Monterey, California and was appointed corporal. This program covered four summers, but Donald's completion of the ROTC program in high school allowed him skip the initial "basic" course.
Donald was also, at some point, an R.A.F. cadet (?). He is seen in the lower right with his back to the camera.
In 1942 was at Ft. Riley in Kansas and at Ft. Jackson, South Carolina in 1943, before being sent with his division to European Theater, where he was stationed in Germany and France during WWII.
From an interview with my Gpa Don Caman, in 18 October 1998 he talked about his time in the military.
"When I was a very young teenager, my father used to teach me that American citizens had many privileges, but they also had some responsibilities. To fulfill the responsibility was to prepare yourself militarily. In those days they had what was called Citizen's Military Training Camps, CMTC. The deal was to go for a month in the summertime and be trained by the regular army, reserve officers on active duty would go through the basic course, or the red, white, and blue course, which I did, for four summers. If you successfully passed the four courses, then you coulees apply to take the tenth series course, the correspondence course, and then you could dapple for commission as a second lieutenant, which I did. There was no pay, the reimbursement was $.05 a mile for your travel from home to the military post. Well, I could have gone to Ft. McArthur or Monterey. Well, I took Monterey because it was farther away and I got more five cents. I joined the cavalry, which at the time was a horse cavalry, because I figured riding a horse beat walking in the infantry. So, that's what started my military career.
"After I completed school, and after about a month at Ft. Riley - I was teaching communications to the recruits our at the CRTC, which is the Cavalry Replacement Training Center - I got my orders to report tot he reconnaissance troop of the 100th infantry division at Ft. Jackson, South Carolina.
"[I was in the Army] four years and ten days. I was enlisted, and officers are not enlisted. When my term was up and I had the points to get out. I got out and I stayed in the reserve and I got called for Korea, although I didn't go to Korea. I was instructor at Ft. Knox in Armored School, and then, that call up was supposed to for two years, but it only lasted seventeen months, so I separated and I came back [to California] and joined the Guard then, stayed in the Guard until April '65. I had command of the 1st battalion, 160th armored infantry battalion and the summer after I retired it was the battalion that was called in for the riots in Los Angeles in 1965. The Watts riots. If I had known that was going to happen, I would have stayed in."
Donald William Caman was buried with military honors in the Riverside National Cemetery in Riverside, California. He took his responsibility to serve his country seriously, and today I honor him.
Direct line ancestry: Donald William Caman --> Donald William (Caman) Marshall --> Lora Marshall Nehring
