On Saturday, Sept. 19, Navy World War II veteran Ken Bergquist received duplicates of medals he hadn’t seen in more than 50 years.

Bergquist, a native of Boothbay Harbor, signed up for the Navy at the age of 17 with his father’s permission. He was assigned to USS Cony, a destroyer built at Bath Iron Works. The ship operated in the South Pacific Theater. She was bombed twice, once while Bergquist was aboard.

After the war, Bergquist stowed his medals in his sister’s attic. They were never seen again. Bergquist’s daughter, Karen, said that the best guess was that they were inadvertently disposed of when his sister cleaned out her attic to move.

It was Karen Bergquist who petitioned the Navy for replacements.

Unbeknownst to Ken Bergquist, Karen received the medals and had them framed in a display box. On a visit from Seattle, she arranged to have a Navy representative from BIW join a family gathering at Taste of Maine to present the medals to her father.

Bergquist was touched and surprised. “I never thought I’d see these again,” he said. He was also given a ship’s coin for the recently departed USS Zumwalt.

Bergquist said he grew up at the head of the harbor, on Union Street. The house has been a bed and breakfast at times, and a private house at other times. “But to me it was just home,” Bergquist said.