102-year-old veteran honored with WWII medals

OGUNQUIT, Maine (WCSH) — A 102-year-old Maine veteran received WWII medals Friday that were 73 years overdue.

Senator Angus King presented Dr. Ruth Endicott with four medals at her home in Ogunquit.

Endicott’s daughter Lynne Sauer contacted King’s office in 2018 to see if her mother had earned any medals during her service. Lo and behold, there were four medals — the Women’s Army Corps Ribbon, the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, the World War II Victory Medal, and the Honorable Service Lapel Button — that Ruth had earned but never been given.

Dr. Endicott enlisted in the Women’s Army Corps in 1943. When she returned home, Ruth graduated from Colby College in 1949 and then from Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia four years later. Dr. Ruth went on to practice as a family physician in Ogunquit for 50 years, retiring at 88.