USN Chief Boatswain Mate Charles Francis Driscoll was born in Ironwood, Michigan on July 2, 1889, although very little is known about his childhood or family. We do know that he was a World War I veteran having enlisted in the US Navy around 1910. He was stationed aboard the USS New York, which was more than likely a "receiving ship" at the time of his enlistment. Back then a receiving ship was a sailor's boot camp of on-the-job training. By 1918, he would be awarded four citations for his excellent service during WWI. He may or may not have retired from the Navy and settled in Mobile, Alabama. Regardless, he married a Mobile girl by the name of Ethel Lee Theresa Gonzalez sometime before 1938 and whose date of birth is listed as 1906, 1912, 1917, and 1921. She was the daughter of Joseph and Eva Gonzalez, a local cigar maker at a Mobile factory. In 1940, he is listed as a civilian in Mobile living with his wife and daughter (Theresa Marie born 1938) at 129 Old Shell Road. At the time he is working as a radio repairman at a radio repair shop.
Later that year he appears at NAS Pensacola around December of 1940. After the war began, he stayed in Pensacola until May 1943 at which time he was sent to sea duty in Europe. Prior to his departure he made sure his family had an adequate residence at 108 Central Avenue in Warrington and was amply taken care of.
In July, the war department contacted Ethel at her home and notified her of the death of her husband on June 18, 1944. The nature of his death is unknown, but his body was available to be sent back home after the war and buried in Barrancas Cemetery on May 17, 1948. Ethel would join him there in 1984.
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