NEWS

'Hero of the Year': Texas USPS worker saved woman from dog attack. Here's his heroic story

Brandi D. Addison
Lubbock Avalanche-Journal

United States Postal Service worker Philip Moon was on his route in Amarillo when he witnessed a resident and her two dogs engaged in a harrowing battle against a pit bull. In a remarkable sequence of events, Moon intervened and saved her life.

Although the National Association of Letter Carriers recognized Moon as "Hero of the Year" during its annual award ceremony on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Moon told them that he didn't necessarily consider his actions heroic.

"Knowing the people I work with, anybody would have done what I did," he said in a news release.

'You saved her twice,' police told him

Philip Moon, a United States Postal Service worker with 37 years of service, was honored as "Hero of the Year" by the National Association of Letter Carriers for his courageous act of rescuing a woman and her dog during a pit bull attack.

Upon hearing the commotion, Moon immediately sprang into action to help and successfully rescued the woman and one of her dogs from the pit bull, pulling them onto his truck.

Moon noticed the floorboard filling up with blood and quickly removed the shirt he was wearing to compress her wounds and stop the bleeding. While calling 9-1-1 for assistance, the dog returned and managed to force its way through the partially closed door and bit her other leg, just as her husband heard the struggle and rushed to help.

"Then the dog went after me," Moon said in a news release from the National Association of Letter Carriers. "All this time, I'm talking to the 9-1-1 operator."

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First responders and animal control officers arrived at the scene and caught the dog while EMTs tended to the victim's wounds.

After the event, Moon drove back to the post office and visited the victim in the hospital, where he said responders told him she had passed out twice from loss of blood.

Moon recalled officers telling him, "You saved her twice" — once when he pried her from the dog's grip and again when he prevented her from bleeding to death.

“I’ll be honest with you — I was scared to death,” he said. “I was just running on adrenaline.

"I don’t consider myself a hero," he added.