MONROE COUNTY, Pa. – His military service ended years ago, but a retired special forces soldier is continuing his service to the community by keeping tabs on our most vulnerable people.

This week, he’s being recognized as a Lehigh Valley Red Cross Hero.

On one of the coldest days this winter- retired army Sergeant Major Mark Baylis walked us around this Pocono property, a sanctuary for veterans who have lost their way.

“It means that people get a chance to get out of the woods or out from under a bridge or out of their car and get a fair chance at starting over,” said Baylis. 

He says a chance encounter with a veteran who was living under a bridge was a life changing moment, and ever since he’s been helping thousand of veterans find their purpose again and a way back to life.

Mark opened Paul’s House in Monroe County, an arm of his veteran non-profit VALOR Clinic Foundation.

He named it Paul’s House in honor of his friend and fellow special forces soldier Major Paul Syverson. He was severely injured in Afghanistan in November 2001, finally healed in 2004, then 2 weeks after his daughter was born he deployed to Iraq and was killed within days.

Helping veterans is Mark’s life’s work. He knows what it’s like to come home and find it different from when you left.

“I broke my back in Baghdad- medically put out of the service,” Baylis said. 

He was a senior military officer with a pension and benefits but when he got out, Mark says his retirement papers were lost in the system and the VA started billing him for his war injuries.

“And it was kind of a strange dynamic… I ended up living in a camper for awhile while I was trying to unsort the mess,” he said. 

Baylis started researching the claims process and says he realized so many other veterans were in similar situations.

The outreach Mark is doing now is getting others to understand how to help.

He believes suicide prevention among veterans goes beyond focusing on PTSD – and he’s implemented programs for veterans and families to work their way through it.

“Our suicide rate is zero after 12 years, zero,” Baylis said. “We’re abandoned, nobodies leading the island of misfit toys to make outcomes with the empathy of the people on the inside- on the topics where they were ignored and lost and becomes a quest you can’t turn your back on.”

Part of the quest begins inside this old home. There’s a lot of history here.

It’s future is about caring for those we should never leave behind- a place where veterans can find freedom after sacrificing everything to save ours.