The place that he had signed up was Pittsburgh, PA

Wartime efforts that didn't only happen in his town but throughout the entire of the US was the food rations and steel rations. His family while he was at war was helping with these rations.

Pittsburgh and Portage is in PA and they were some of the main coal and steel contributors of the war on the allies side. Walter didn't seem to have any job of my knowledge before joining the army because he was still teenage young.