Walt - c. World War II

I recently bought this photo and am wondering if anyone has any idea who that is with Walt? I would peg the photo as having been taken around 1942, note the storyboard for the Thumper springtime sequence from Bambi behind them. We know that the Disney artists didn't start work on military projects until after Pearl Harbor and Bambi was released in 1942 so it would be sometime in that period.