Pugliese

Douglas J. Pugliese, M.D., Butler High School Class of 1994, was recently awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal for meritorious service while serving as the Battalion Medical Officer for 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines, 2nd Marine Division, Camp Lejeune, N.C., from July 2004 to May 2007.Dr. Pugliese served his general medical officer tour in 2004 in the Medical Corps, U.S.Navy, after completing a preliminary medicine internship at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, in Boston.He has completed two tours of duty in the Middle East, the first as part of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit aboard the USS Ashland (LSD 48) and the second as a part of Task Force 2/8 under the 5th Regimental Combat Team in Fallujah, Iraq.His citation notes his leadership skills, his commitment to force health protection and the medical training of his Navy corpsmen, his operational trauma skills, his commitment to being a forward medical presence in a dangerous area of operation and his dedication to duty.He has served for almost three years as the medical doctor for a Marine Corps infantry battalion.Pugliese was a biology major at the Indiana (Pa.) University and attended the Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia through the four-year Navy Health Professions Scholarship Program.——Pvt.

Sasha Watterson has graduated from Army basic training at Fort Jackson, S.C.She is the daughter of William and Diane Mahan of Saxonburg and Keith and Cindy Watterson of Sarver.Watterson is a 2003 graduate of Knoch High School.