LT CHARLES J. KING, USN

Class 1938

Born July 10, 1917

Died August 22, 1942

Age 25

Hometown Boston, Massachusetts

Lucky Bag Yearbook

From the 1938 Lucky Bag:

CHARLES JOSEPH KING

Charlie, Chass

Crew 4, 1; Black N*; 1 P.O.

‘38’s practical joker, an artist of talent, a literary genius lost without his Book-of-the-Month, and the possessor of a most charming personality, he never realized his life’s ambition of winning the Irish Sweepstakes; but our Samuel Johnson, with an affected Oxford accent, bluffed his way through one European cruise, then returned to develop an unrivaled proficiency in cribbage. With frequent trips to Baltimore, he missed none of the fun of second class summer, but second class year nearly proved his Waterloo. After an almost fatal case of pneumonia and four months in the hospital, he astonished us by successfully completing the year and then fell into the unparalleled good fortune of four months of sick leave. Then followed first class year, and never shall we forget those Sunday afternoons at Ogle Hall spent with Charlie and our drags

Loss

Charles was lost when USS Ingraham (DD 444) was sunk on August 22, 1942 by a collision with an oil tanker while on convoy duty off the coast of Nova Scotia. Ingraham sank almost immediately, and depth charges on her stern detonated as she went down. Only eleven men survived.

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

Charles graduated from the Bigelow School in South Boston in 1930 (which now houses condos) and the Boston Latin School with the class of 1934. “Charlie” headed for Annapolis. “A prince of good fellows.” Entered Class IV-B from Bigelow School, 1930; Drum corps, 1930-31-32-33-34; Physics Club, 1933-34; Glee Club, 1933-34.

Charles was nominated as first alternate to the Naval Academy by Congressman John W. McCormack in March 1934.

In 1920, Charles and his father lived with his paternal grandparents and uncles at 218 W 5th Street. His father was a crane contractor, and his mother Catherine Shaw King was born in Nova Scotia. In 1930, his father worked in a rubber factory. When Charles was nominated in 1934, his mother had already died.

His wife was listed as next of kin.

Charles is remembered at the Tablets of the Missing at the East Coast Memorial on Manhattan, New York.

Photographs

From his high school yearbook

Navy Directories & Officer Registers

The "Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps" was published annually from 1815 through at least the 1970s; it provided rank, command or station, and occasionally billet until the beginning of World War II when command/station was no longer included. Scanned copies were reviewed and data entered from the mid-1840s through 1922, when more-frequent Navy Directories were available.

The Navy Directory was a publication that provided information on the command, billet, and rank of every active and retired naval officer. Single editions have been found online from January 1915 and March 1918, and then from three to six editions per year from 1923 through 1940; the final edition is from April 1941.

The entries in both series of documents are sometimes cryptic and confusing. They are often inconsistent, even within an edition, with the name of commands; this is especially true for aviation squadrons in the 1920s and early 1930s.

Alumni listed at the same command may or may not have had significant interactions; they could have shared a stateroom or workspace, stood many hours of watch together, or, especially at the larger commands, they might not have known each other at all. The information provides the opportunity to draw connections that are otherwise invisible, though, and gives a fuller view of the professional experiences of these alumni in Memorial Hall.