JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. - While their uniforms make them look similar, inside the chest of each Soldier beats the heart of a unique individual with their own passions, talents and gifts.
Some play sports, some play video games, some paint, but they all have a way to express their inner voice.
For Spc. Phillip Gertzel, the best way to express that voice is by, well, using his own voice and singing.
Gertzel, who serves as a supply specialist with Company B, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment, 3-2 Stryker Brigade Combat Team, has been singing since he was a child, and being a Soldier has only served to strengthen his voice.
"I sang as a kid; my mom got me into it," said Gertzel, a Long Island, New York, native. "I played football, and they said you had to take a class and it was either band or music. I thought, 'There are girls in music who are kind of pretty, so I guess I'll do that.'"
Gertzel attributes his mom with helping kindle his love of singing.
"Singing was very important to her," he said. "She loved it when I sang."
Gertzel remembers as a child almost having the opportunity to sing for the president after he and his mother drove from Florida to Washington, D.C.
"She drove the whole way," Gertzel said. "She always supported me in whatever I wanted to do."
After joining the military and being stationed in Germany, which has a big karaoke scene, Gertzel not only continued to sing, but used it to help start the next chapter of his life.
"That's how I proposed to my wife," Gertzel said. "I was in Germany and my wife really loved NSYNC's 'This I Promise You.' I got back from deployment and I really wanted to propose, but I had no idea how to propose to her. I went to the bar that night with her, and in the middle of someone else singing, I'm like, 'I'm going to do this.' I go on stage and I sat her down on a chair and I told her at the end of the song to look at the screen over there and she turned around and looked at the screen and by that time I was on my knee and everyone was screaming ... and I popped the question."
For his wife, Brenda, the memory of that night is one of the best of her life.
"Somehow he remembered that I told him once that as a teenager I always wanted to get married to the song 'This I Promise You' by NSYNC," she said. "It made me the happiest woman in the world."
Now, a year into their marriage, Gertzel's singing has a special place in her heart.
"My husband's singing can pull me out of any bad mood or situation," she said. "To hear him singing at any time always brings a smile to my face. I love it as much as he does, and it always brings out the best and most creative side of him."
Gertzel hopes to pursue his singing even as he continues his career as a Soldier. He recently won the Rising Star competition on Joint Base Lewis-McChord where he competed against a number of other service members to see who was the best singer.
Just getting to the competition was a bit of a challenge. Before signing up, he had to let his unit know. They weren't aware at that time that he could sing, so they asked for a performance.
"I told my leadership what I was doing and they're like, 'You're going to go sing? Well, you've got to sing for us first,'" he said. "It was awkward, because, people don't know I sing. They were surprised."
His leadership and fellow Soldiers supported him throughout the competition and were there to see him win.
"They called my name, and all of my friends were there, my company was there, my company commander, my first sergeant ... they called my name and 'boom' an eruption," he said. "I was excited because I've never won."
After winning this, Gertzel hopes to try out for the Soldier Show, a live entertainment troupe made up of Soldiers that perform at military bases around the world.
For now, Gertzel is content to just keep singing for himself and his wife.
"It's a stress reliever," Gertzel said. "On a Friday afternoon, like after a day like this, I crank up the tunes, put my hat on, roll the window down and just jam out. It kind of takes you away."
"You know when you hear that song that brings you back to a time when life was good and life was easy and you drift off, but not literally while you're driving," Gertzel joked. "You're in your own world, you're jamming and you don't care. I feel as though it makes a box; you're right then in that moment and you don't really see all the bad things in the world, it's you in that moment."
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