American Legion sets memorial for ex-post commander Jerry Autrey
American Legion Post 8 will hold a memorial service Feb. 8 at 2 p.m. for former post commander and Las Vegas police crime scene investigator Jerry Autrey.
He died Jan. 14 at home in Las Vegas. He was 60.
“As a Legionnaire, Jerry worked as an officer at every level,” Post 8 Commander Rod Carlone said in a statement Friday.
In addition to commanding the state’s largest American Legion post, Post 8, Autrey was an American Legion district service officer, department vice commander and a member of the National Distinguished Guest Committee.
“It can be said that no veteran could ever have a better friend than Jerry Autrey,” said Carlone, who worked with Autrey last year to document the history of the Medal of Honor awarded posthumously to World War II Army Pvt. George J. Peters.
The medal was given to the post for safekeeping by the family of a deceased World War II Army veteran who had rescued it decades ago from a Rhode Island swap meet.
Autrey assembled a display and made a shadow box for Peters’ other awards. They are in a glass cabinet with medals from past wars that have been given to the post, with the Army and Navy uniforms of two brothers who served in World War I.
Autrey himself ironed out creases in Peters’ Medal of Honor neck ribbon, where it had been folded in its case for 67 years.
With a passion for researching military history, he determined that Peters had jumped in the last large paratrooper assault during World War II, Operation Varsity, involving 16,000 U.S. and British paratroopers in a coordinated attack across the Rhine River.
Autrey was born Feb. 10, 1953, in Canyon, Texas. His family moved to California when he was 4 years old. Shortly after graduating from high school, he enlisted in the Army.
After basic training at Fort Polk, La., he completed military police training at Fort Gordon, Ga. After his honorable discharge, he earned a criminal justice degree and became a forensics specialist for the Ontario, Calif., police department. After moving to Las Vegas he became a Las Vegas police crime scene investigator.
Autrey is survived by his daughter, Jenny, and son, Tim.
The family prefers donations in his name to American Legion Post 8, 733 N. Veterans Memorial Drive, Las Vegas, NV 89101.
Arrangements for burial of his ashes are pending.
