After 70 years of being unaware he had earned them, a local veteran’s family was formally presented with the medals he was should have received during his four years in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. The family received the medals during a special ceremony held Saturday at Petsworth Baptist Church, Gloucester.

Lucy Soles, widow of Gloucester native George B. Soles, said it was “a great honor” to receive her late husband’s medals, including the Bronze Star.

Shortly after her husband died in 2017, Mrs. Soles said she was going through a lockbox of her husband’s and came across his Army Air Corps uniform. She said her husband never spoke much about his time in the service, so she asked if someone from the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 824 in Yorktown could look at the uniform and provide some information to the family about his service.

As commander of Post 824, Edwin Binder said he asked a friend of the Soles family, Tony Sayago, and Terry B...