Vietnam War storyteller George Cressy dies

Like legions of other veterans of the Vietnam War, George Cressy, of Northport, had long kept details of his battlefield service to himself. They were simply too painful to share.

But Cressy, who earned a Bronze Star and helped lead the 1980s veterans movement to assert pride in Vietnam War service, finally told his story.

Writing in a marble notebook to pass the time during dialysis sessions in the mid-1990s, he described three days of battle on a blood-soaked hillside in November 1967. His account of the infamous battle of Dak To, published in Newsday in November 1996, combined vivid narratives of intense fighting with contemplative musings about the fear and heroism he witnessed.

Cressy, who was 68, died Friday at St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center in Smithtown of complications of kidney disease.

His storytelling was at once moving and shocking.

"For me this will always be the most courageous act I have ever witnessed," Cressy wrote in one passage. "Sgt. Davis stayed on that tree limb, knowing he was fully exposed to enemy fire for a long time. Even when his M16 jammed he demanded another. . . . I looked up and saw Sgt. Davis fall from the tree into the crater. He had been hit twice and had remained in the tree firing until he eventually passed out and fell."

In another: "Several men were holding Sgt. Hudson. I moved next to him and held his hand. I was horrified at his wounds. . . . He was dying in our arms."

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In a Newsday article by Fred Bruning, Cressy said he was tormented by memories of the war's carnage and numbed his pain with Southern Comfort.

He gave up drinking in 1988 and began looking for ways to honor the service of his fellow Vietnam veterans. He helped choose the design for a Vietnam memorial at Bald Hill in Farmingville built in 1991.

Bill Stilwagen, a former Middle Island resident who directed the memorial committee, said Cressy never flaunted his role as a hero. "He had a quiet leadership about him," Stilwagen said. "He never let it go to his head."

Cressy was born in Ayer, Mass., and moved to Huntington to live with a sister when he was 18. In 1966, he married Barbara Mayer. He was working as an illustrator when he got a draft notice. He trained as a parachutist with the 82nd Airborne Division, completed Officer Candidate School and arrived in Vietnam on Aug. 16, 1967.

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His actions three months later at Dak To, where he served as a platoon commander with Company C, 3rd Battalion, 8th Infantry, 4th Infantry Division, earned him the Bronze Star.

Cressy "continuously exposed himself to the enemy fire while organizing his platoon and offering encouragement to his comrades" even after being wounded, the medal citation read.

Returning home in 1968, Cressy and his wife raised their five children in Northport. He worked as a graphic designer until kidney failure forced him to retire about 20 years ago, said his son Shannon Cressy.

In addition to his son and wife, Cressy is survived by another son, Colin, of Center Moriches; and daughters Katherine Heaviside of Huntington, Megan Stace of Bayport and Erin Matlin of Methuen, Mass.

A wake at Nolan & Taylor-Howe Funeral Home in Northport is planned for Sunday, with a 9:45 a.m. funeral Monday at St. Anthony of Padua Roman Catholic Church in East Northport.

"I want him to be remembered as someone who cared for himself last and always put his family first, someone with a huge heart," Shannon Cressy said. "He had the willpower to be positive."