Philip Albenze

Veterans and military audiences

An Army veteran's road back

Phil Albenze enlisted after Jackson-Milton High School and served in the US Army from 1987 to 1993. He drank in the Army. "It really got out of hand when I got out of the Army," he told the Tribune Chronicle. The next twenty years brought three DUIs, jail, a shooting and 304 pounds before a doctor's warning and his young son's tears turned him around.

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Phil hitting a side-chest pose in front of a Natural Muscle backdrop
On stage as a natural bodybuilder.

After the uniform

The back cover of his memoir, The Black Sword, says it directly: Phil's life "took a drastic turn after his time in the Army. With two traumatic experiences, he found himself drowning in alcohol addiction, an unhealthy diet, and in a toxic marriage." He held a job through most of it and drank 24 to 30 beers a night.

He describes the cycle on his podcast: drink, wake up sick, go to work, repeat. "And repeat this pattern, this destructive behavior, for years. I did this for 20 years."

The turn

In 2009 a doctor told him his body was like a 70-year-old man's. His nine-year-old son cried, and Phil drove to a gym that day and hired a trainer. He quit drinking cold turkey, later worked the twelve steps with a sponsor, and lost about 140 pounds in the first year. In 2015 he won the Black Sword, the championship trophy of the NGA Northeast Ohio All Natural bodybuilding show, against much younger men.

Asking for help was the hardest part. "I came up old school in an Italian family and being the oldest male, first male. Asking for help was often looked at as a sign of weakness," he says.

What he brings to a veterans' event

Talks run up to an hour. The story is the one in The Black Sword: the years after the Army, the drinking and its cost, the day he said "I need help," and the training that replaced the bottle. Today he runs Body by Phil in Austintown, Ohio, where he has trained a blind man another gym turned away and an amputee sent by his vascular doctor, and he boxes in the Masters division in his fifties.

Where he has spoken

  • Otterbein University4 talks, about 200 each people
  • Human Resource Association of Central Ohio (HRACO)1 talk, 600 people
  • California Palms Addiction & Recovery Center3 talks, 100 to 150 each people
  • Mahoning County Career & Technical Center (MCCTC)3 talks, 100 to 150 each people
  • Boardman Middle School1 talk, 200 people
  • Hubbard High School1 talk, 200 people
  • Trumbull Career & Technical Center (TCTC)1 talk, 100 people
  • Rotary Club1 talk, 50 to 60 people

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Where Phil speaks to veterans

Phil focuses on veterans' events within about 200 miles of Youngstown, Ohio. These cities have their own page:

Questions

When and where did Phil serve?

In the US Army, from 1987 to 1993, after graduating from Jackson-Milton High School in Ohio.

What kinds of veterans' groups can book him?

Any group that wants a story of addiction and recovery after service told by someone who lived it: veterans' posts, VA and community programs, recovery courts, military family events.

How far does he travel?

Anywhere, with a focus on events within about 200 miles of Youngstown, Ohio. See where he speaks.

Does The Black Sword cover his time in the Army?

Its back cover says Phil's life "took a drastic turn after his time in the Army" and that "two traumatic experiences" left him drowning in alcohol addiction.

Is the talk only for veterans?

No. Phil speaks to schools, recovery centers, workplaces and fitness events too. For a veterans' audience, the years after the Army are at the center.

How long is the talk?

Up to an hour.

Book Phil for your veterans' event

Send your date, audience and city, or call (330) 314-0228.

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