David Conroy, decorated veteran, dies at 61

On the basketball court David Conroy had heart. On the battlefield, the former Uniondale High School star had guts.

Conroy, 61, of Uniondale, a decorated Vietnam War veteran who was a youth league teammate of Julius Erving, died Monday of liver failure.

"He wanted people to remember that he supported his country and that he served his country," said his younger brother Brian.

After playing two years of varsity basketball at Uniondale in 1966 and '67, earning all-league honors in '67, David Conroy enlisted in the Army and was sent to Vietnam.

He was a combat medic and saw action, eventually earning a Silver Star with an oak leaf cluster symbolic of exceptional valor, plus two Bronze Star Medals.

Conroy earned his Silver Star while a member of the 25th Infantry for saving the life of a wounded soldier by carrying him to safety after their vehicle was disabled by enemy fire, his brother said. "He got two guys out that day, but not a third."

Older brother Jack Conroy said David Conroy was "very courageous. As a medic, he saw a lot of bad things and you had to prod him to talk about it. Like many Vietnam veterans, he suffered from post-traumatic stress syndrome his whole adult life and had some problems. He was on 100 percent disability from the military, but still worked full time for the phone company from the 1970s until the 1990s."

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When David Conroy was 14, he played for Don Ryan on the Hempstead Salvation Army youth basketball team that won the prestigious Ray Felix Tournament in East Elmhurst.

Among his teammates were future college stars Al Williams and the legendary Erving, known as Dr. J and a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame.

"We had a dynamic team, and nobody contributed more than Davey. He had a big heart," recalled Ryan, who still coaches youth teams in Hempstead.

"He was a really good player who might've had Division I potential," Jack Conroy said. "But in those days, with the situation the country was in, he enlisted in the Army by December of 1967. He was 18 when he went in. Basketball was a big part of his life before the military. But he was committed and wanted to get involved in the American cause in Vietnam."

David Conroy was one of 13 children.

He is survived by his three children, sons, David Jr. and Jesse, and daughter Michelle; and four grandchildren.

Funeral services are Saturday at 11 a.m. at St. Martha Church in Uniondale.