https://lancasteronline.com/news/local/chance-meeting-in-bethlehem-unites-man-and-service-dog-named/article_2872cbe8-c945-11e6-acc8-0baa7483d4a5.html
TOM KNAPP | Staff Writer | December 26, 2016
They went to Bethlehem on a whim, driving up from East Norriton to visit the popular Christmas City.
There, Marty and Stephanie Phelan met a man and his dog who sparked an unexpected connection with Marty's brother, who died in a suicide bombing in Mosul, Iraq, in 2004.
"I think when you lose somebody, they find a way to come back and let you know they're OK," Stephanie says. "There is magic and spirit in the world. There is hope."
It was about 7 p.m. Dec. 3. Marty says he'd never been to Bethlehem before, but he and his wife wanted to see Christmas City.
"We were going to the visitor's center, and inside the foyer there were people checking hand stamps," Stephanie says. "We saw a dog there, a service dog, with a gentleman -- a volunteer -- sitting next to him."
"My wife went up and asked for permission to pet the dog," Marty chimes in. "He told her the dog was there to help him with post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety."
"He said the dog was named Phelan, for Lt. Col. Mark Phelan, who had died in Mosul," Stephanie continues.
"Marty and I just looked at each other. Tears came to our eyes -- we were dumbfounded. Did we really just hear what we heard? Marty couldn't speak. So I told him, ‘That was our brother.' He got up, he said he always wanted to meet Mark's family.
"There was all this emotion, and the dog sensed it and got excited. He jumped up with his paws on Marty's shoulders and gave him a hug."
"It was literally a hug," Marty insists. "He pulled me in and started licking me on the face. It was the sweetest thing -- it was very emotional for me."
Lt. Col. Mark Phelan, Marty's older brother by 11 months, died Oct. 13, 2004, just after beginning an extended tour of duty.
He was a former member of the 1185th Transportation Terminal Brigade, headquartered in Lancaster, and in 2004 the Lancaster Army Reserve Center at 1135 Ranck Mill Road, where he had worked for several years, was renamed in his honor.
During a previous tour in Iraq, Mark Phelan was instrumental in establishing the Nineveh Business Center in Mosul to help locals start new businesses and obtain financing. His brother says he helped rebuild the hospital, fire department and police station, among other vital structures, to get the village back on its feet.
"One of the things my family is most proud of is that he, along with two other captains, basically rebuilt the town of Mosul," Marty says.
"He worked hand in hand with the population there, the Iraqi people. He finished his tour of duty and came home. Then he went back -- he was actually doing a tour of Mosul when the suicide truck hit his convoy. He was on his way to the children's hospital there."
The veteran, Harold Siegfried, served six years in the 1990s as a heavy artilleryman in the U.S. Army, Marty says.
He suffered from hearing problems caused by an injury overseas, Marty adds, and in the years since his trucking business failed and his father died.
"He fell into depression, and he became homeless," he says.
Harold started volunteering through a local shelter, Marty says. It was through that work that he found Tails of Valor, Paws of Honor, a program that pairs veterans with dogs.
He's had Phelan since the summer, Stephanie says.
Service dogs in the Tails of Valor program are named after fallen soldiers, she notes, and "he told us Phelan saved his life."
"As big as he is, he thinks he's tiny. He's a snuggler," Stephanie adds. "Harold said the dog realizes when he needs to be supported. The dog helps him to be out among people, helps him to feel that everything will be OK."
The 18-month-old dog was named by a trainer who had served with Mark in Iraq and remembered him fondly.
In a weird twist, Marty says, the dog is a mix of great Dane, bull mastiff and black Labrador retriever.
"When Mark died, he had a great Dane and a bull mastiff, and we had a black Lab," he explains. "The combination of all three dogs in this one dog was just an eerie coincidence."
"Harold even let me walk the dog -- that's something he never did before," Marty adds. "He said he could sense the dog had a connection with me."
Harold, Stephanie says, told them he wasn't even supposed to be there that night. He was called in at the last minute, she explains, and posted in a different spot than usual.
"It was an odd, magical, wonderful coincidence," she says.
Marty and Stephanie spent about 40 minutes that evening with Harold and his dog, and they say they will get together with him again -- possibly with members of their extended family who want to meet Phelan.
"We'll get a caravan together and go up to Bethlehem," Stephanie says.
Meanwhile, Stephanie says she and her husband see their encounter with Harold and Phelan as a Christmas miracle.
"I've been telling people the story," she says. "It's a story of hope and love, magic and coincidence. Whatever your beliefs might be, you can take something from it."
Tails of Valor, Paws of Honor is a nonprofit program based in Coopersburg that uses rescued dogs to provide rehabilitation for veterans.
According to the Tails of Valor website, the organization caters to vets suffering from post-traumatic stress, traumatic brain injuries and physical disabilities.
In some cases, dogs are trained to open doors, turn on lights and otherwise assist veterans with disabilities. In other cases, they provide companionship and a shield against outside triggers and sources of stress.
"It would be so great to see some focus on the organization that works to connect vets with these loving service animals, as well as honoring our vets who provide such amazing service and sacrifice all year long," Stephanie Phelan wrote recently in a message to LNP.
She and her husband, Marty Phelan, recently encountered a once-homeless veteran who says he owes his life to his Tails of Valor dog. That dog, it turned out, is named Phelan in honor of Marty's older brother Mark, who died in a suicide bombing in Iraq in 2004.
Heather Lloyd, who launched Tails of Valor in 2014, told the Allentown Morning Call in February that the program helps veterans adjust to civilian life while finding homes for rescued dogs.
Lloyd and other trainers teach the pups to respond to basic commands -- sit, stay, heel -- as well as specialized skills such as opening doors, switching lights on and off, or fetching specific objects.
Veterans applying for a dog through the program must have discharge papers and proof of disabilities that affect their independence and ability to engage in the activities of daily life, according to the Morning Call.
The program is free to veterans and is supported through sponsors and donations, as well as Lloyd's business, Critter Corral, a pet resort in Coopersburg.
For more information on the program, visit tailsofvalor.org.