Wally Wachter found that his ability as a journalist not only provided an interesting four-year stay in the Army, but a career at The Herald that spanned more than four decades.

He closed out his career at The Herald in 1983. Since then, he has authored a popular column for the newspaper, "The Way We Were," a weekly anecdotal collection of his experiences during his days growing up in Farrell.

While in the Army stationed in Hawaii, he was associate editor of the Pacific edition of Stars and Stripes, a newspaper for service personnel. His assignments included a news conference with President Franklin D. Roosevelt and a tour of the Hawaiian Islands with a Bob Hope USO troupe. In addition, he did some ghost writing for baseball star Joe DiMaggio, who was stationed in Hawaii with the Air Force.

While at The Herald, he was a longtime member of the board of directors of the Pennsylvania Society of Newspaper Editors and served as president of the United Press International Editors of Pennsylvania. In that role, he helped draft meetings that led to the state's first open meetings and records law.

Campman has employed a wealth of experiences from college, the military and the private sector to forge a prominent Mercer County company that develops life safety products.

He graduated from Youngstown State University with a degree in engineering and began working for the Navy Department in Silver Spring, Md., in 1964. He returned to the Shenango Valley in 1976 and founded Grace Industries Inc. He has developed products to aid the deaf, the visually handicapped and elderly with alerting systems and developed and manufactured a line of security products. Since 1983, he has focused a great deal of his efforts for the betterment of apparatus for firefighters. The result has been a line of safety products for firefighters that are sold worldwide. He holds more than 50 patents. His company is recognized as the world's only manufacturer of stand-alone NFPA-compliant personal alert safety systems and leader in supplying products for life safety.

Terry Komar had an illustrious and decorated 20-year career in the Marine Corps and has been a successful entrepreneur.

Before retiring from the Marines in 1978 as a lieutenant colonel, he had amassed numerous honors, awards and achievements. Among them, he was awarded the Bronze Star with Combat "V" for bravery and meritorious service in connection with operations against the enemy in the Republic of Vietnam.

He enrolled at Marietta (Ohio) College and joined the Naval Cadet Flight Program in 1955, wanting to become a Marine fighter pilot. But a vision problem blocked that path, and he returned to Marietta, graduating with a bachelor's in business administration.

After various assignments as a combat engineer platoon leader in Okinawa to an airborne artillery and close air support observer, he was sent to serve in the Vietnam War as a captain of C Company in Chu Lai in 1966.

Pat Buzzeo earned an associate degree in administration of justice from American University while serving with the Washington Metropolitan Police Department, where he was involved in many of the major political events that occurred in the nation's capital.

He served at inaugural events for presidents and stood watch at the funeral procession of John F. Kennedy. He was involved in maintaining peace during the 1968 riots and many of the protest marches that took place around the Capitol. He was promoted to sergeant in 1982 and retired in 1986.

He became a special agent for the Defense Department until 1997, responsible for conducting the security clearances of the Army Honor Guard at Fort Myers, Va. He was transferred to Andrews Air Force Base and conducted the security clearances for all personnel assigned to Air Force One, Air Force Two, and all other units of the president's air fleet. He was recalled from retirement in 2002 as a private contractor to help in the new security issues brought about by the terrorist bombings of Sept. 11.

Domenic Apisa used his expertise in electrical engineering in a career with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration that spanned four decades. He had a hand in every major project at NASA, from the early days of the Apollo program to the space station and shuttle operations.

He holds a degree in electrical engineering from Youngstown State University, and from 1963 through 1977 worked for NASA at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland on numerous projects associated with electrical engineering design. He worked at NASA headquarters in Washington from 1978 until 1997; from 1997 until 2000, he worked at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. From 2000 until 2005, he worked for Boeing Aerospace Corp. He received numerous prestigious awards from the Goddard Space Flight Center, Boeing, NASA and the Johnson Space Center. Among them was the Astronaut's Silver Snoopy Award for personal achievement in planning, programming and funding of the construction of the Neutral Buoyancy Lab that astronauts use to train extravehicular activity.

He joined GE Ordnance Systems, where he worked on the Poseidon and Trident missile projects. He worked with many defense projects at the national and international levels, including ones during the Cold War and war on terrorism.

Knezevich spent a quarter of a century working for the Urban Redevelopment Authority in Pittsburgh, leading many high-profile projects such as Nine Mile Run and South Side Works. He retired from the URA in June and entered a second profession as a registered radiographer with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

He graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 1974 where he majored in political science. He spent the next six years attending law school, traveling through Europe, driving a taxi cab, and working in United States Steel's historic Homestead Works as a bricklayer apprentice.

He left the steel mill in 1979 and earned a master's in urban and regional planning from Pitt's Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. He is involved in the Western Pennsylvania Coalition for Single Payer Health Care, which advocates universal health care, and other community endeavors.

Alfonso Mazyck attained the rank of major before retiring from the Army in 2001 after a stellar academic and athletic career at the United States Military Academy. In his four years at West Point, he was a three-year letterman in football, a four-year letterman in volleyball and earned a Parachutist Badge before graduating in 1981 and being commissioned as a second lieutenant.

He was promoted to captain in 1985. He attended and graduated from the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, Calif., as a German linguist, and until April 1992, he was assigned to the 42nd Army Artillery Group in Germany. He was promoted to major in 1991, and he earned a master's in science of management from Troy State University.

He retired from the Army in July 2001. Among his awards are the NATO Medal, three Meritorious Service Medals, and four Army Commendation Awards.