After instruction at the Naval Training Station, Newport, Rhode Island, he served successive tours of sea duty in , , and before he underwent aviation training at the Fleet Air Base, Coco Solo, Panama Canal Zone.
Transferred to Patrol Squadron 21 (VP-21) in August 1939, Waterman joined that unit in time to make the transpacific flight from Hawaii to the Philippines of VP-21's PBY-4's to reinforce the Asiatic Fleet's patrols out of Cavite and Olongapo.