Peter served in the US Army from 1971 through 1977, had his orders for Vietnam rescinded with the phase-down (the day he was signing out of his unit bound for Vietnam), and spent the next 6 1/2 years in Europe with the Operations and Intelligence Division of the HQ, US Army Medical Command Europe, the Chief Surgeon's Office (Heidelberg, Germany) and a short stint in between HQ commands with the 45th Field Hospital (on the Italian Riviera). He served as a Liaison between the State Department, US and Foreign Embassies, and the General Hospital units providing medical care for special foreign nationals (heads of state, etc). He worked on special projects consolidating medical care for the Army and Air Force in Europe and the Middle East following the end of Doctor Draft after the Vietnam phase-down. His last military assignment was the Nuclear Surety Liaison for the Chief Surgeon and the Commander in Chief, US Army Europe, as part of the Nuclear Surety Program, monitoring medical privacy and accessibility issues for units working with or around nuclear weapons throughout the European area.

His love of being airborne began when he was in first grade, at which time his father took all 10 of his siblings at the time, on a "Penny a Pound" experience flight over the hometown and family farm. It was the best $16.48 investment his father ever passed on to his children, giving them a lifetime love for flying.

Peter retired from TEK Systems, Inc., having spent the last six years at State Farm Corporate, as a digital user interface designer and prototyper of next generation web programs. Previously, he served as the Business Development and Marketing Manager for Santa Maria Software, an industry leader specializing in providing dealer management software to the PowerSports and motorcycle industries.

In addition, Mr. Visel served for ten years as the Information Systems Manager and Facilities/Operations Manager, for the world's largest provider of research antibodies, Santa Cruz Biotechnology. During his tenure, Mr. Visel retained overall responsibility for all national and international corporate IT operations to include multiple web sites which, at the time accounted for over a million hits every day.

In 1990, Peter founded SeeWord Technology, an Apple Value Added Reseller, providing on-site sales and service to medium to large companies in the Santa Cruz County. Mr. Visel was recruited to be a co-founder, part owner, and General Manager for The Apple User Group Store, Soquel, California, a subsiderary of the Apple User Group Connection, which spun off from Apple Computer, to provide support for Apple affinity groups.

Peter Visel was also the owner and founder of a part time business, SeeWord Graphics, in Santa Cruz, California during 1986-1988. Although the business started as a hobby, he concentrated on the Desktop Publishing market designing brochures, marketing materials, business helps, for friends and family. The hobby grew as a direct result of technical advances by Apple Computer and his association with companies such as Adobe. Due to his reputation with his peers and support he developed during those years, he felt there was a real need to reorganize the business to a more technical side of desktop publishing and SeeWord Technology was born in the early part of 1990. Through the early years of internet e-commerce, his business quickly went "global" with numerous customers from throughout the U.S., Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

Peter is an avid world wide traveler, whether it was for work or pleasure. He has lived, not just in the United States, but spent five years living in Germany and two in Italy. During his life span, his passport has been stamped in over 76 countries and his shoes have kicked up the dust in 49 of the United States. It's a small world, after all! During his "free time" from 1989 through 2006, Peter served as the Missions Pastor and then Pastor of the Elm Street Mission of Santa Cruz, which services the area street population. His missions work has also taken him on numerous construction related projects in Papua New Guinea, Peru, Brazil, Madagascar, Israel, amoung others.

Peter and his wife Candy have raised three daughters and two sons. They have two very sweet grand daughters and one grandson. Although their own children have grown and "flown the coop", the "empty nest" syndrome is no more. He and his wife enjoy raising not only reptiles (iguanas, bearded dragons, water dragons and the sort) but also exotic birds, especially the talking and squawking kind. Talking, singing, screaming and whistling birds have filled their home with more noises then children ever could. If you ever wonder why they might be hard of hearing... now you know.

Since late 2004, Peter currently serves as the EWM WebMaster, EWM Facebook admin, GSuite Manager, large event Registrar (Warbirds Wings & Wheels, Swap Meets) and also served as Vice-President 2008-2009 and then Board President, 2009-2010.