JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq - One Indiana National Guard officer took an unusual route home from her deployment here with the 76th Infantry Brigade Combat Team.
Instead of going straight to her demobilization station at Camp Atterbury, Ind., Army Capt. Lisa Kopczynski stopped off at Fort Belvoir, Va., to compete as one of a dozen semifinalists in a military version of American Idol broadcast this week on the Pentagon Channel.
Kopczynski wasn't among the six 2008 Operation Rising Star finalists announced Nov. 12, but any day this public affairs officer gets to indulge her passion for singing is a good day.
"I am excited just to compete," she said here in October. "To have the opportunity here, just for me, brought a little bit of home."
Kopczynski was selected by a panel of Army entertainment and industry professionals who reviewed her video alongside others from servicemembers and family members drawn from all branches worldwide. She was the only National Guard member to make it to the semifinals and was one of two semifinalists who at contest time called a combat zone home.
"It's been a long passion that I've had over the last 10 years at least," said this Citizen-Soldier, who sings rock "˜n' roll, blues, pop and country.
Kopczynski's talent is recognized in Indiana, where she frequently sings the National Anthem and other songs for the Indiana National Guard. She also joined other Citizen-Soldiers in the band Rapid Fire to sing at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis.
Blues separated Kopczynski from the pack at Joint Base Balad - a Susan Tedeschi tune called "It Hurt So Bad" won her the contest here.
"It was a different style than what some of the other performers were doing," she said. "When I sang it, I brought my heart and soul with me."
Hard not to, perhaps, when you're a deployed Soldier and the lyrics include lines like "Oh it's so lonesome, lonesome here with out you."
Competing in contests here at Joint Base Balad to get to the semifinals gave Kopczynski breaks from her job telling the stories of the about 3,200 deployed members of the 76th IBCT.
"It was just really exciting to be around other musicians who had the same passion for playing music or singing music," she said. "I just really enjoy making music."
That was apparently evident to Nigel Caaro, a reality television producer from "America's Got Talent" and a judge in the Rising Star semifinals who said Kopczynski would be good on Broadway.
"At last," he said on the first day of competition. "Someone who looks like they are having fun out there. You really sold that song."
Kopczynski's deployment had begun polishing a song the 38th Infantry Division rock band Rapid Fire sang for the 76th IBCT.
In "When I Chose to be a Soldier," Kopczynski joins Army Sgt. Paul Foster for a duet that puts to music how Soldiers talk to their children about deployment.
The song by Army Staff Sgt. Les Newport exhorts kids to keep a civil tongue, help another, take care of the parent who stays home and do what's right.
"When we're worlds apart, keep me in your heart," Kopczynski sings.
When she was worlds apart, Kopczynski sang from her heart.
The Operation Rising Star winner is scheduled to be revealed in a Nov. 14 Pentagon Channel broadcast also available on the Internet.
Note: Army Staff Sgt. Les Newport of the Indiana National Guard and Air Force Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke of the National Guard Bureau contributed.