Jodrey nominated for CIB National Commander

The out­go­ing Com­bat Infantrymen’s Asso­ci­a­tion National Com­man­der, Bill Cross, has nom­i­nated VFW Post 8736 Com­man­der Jerry Jodrey to be the next National Com­man­der of the Com­bat Infantrymen’s Association.

The Com­bat Infantry­man Badge (CIB) is an award of the United States Army which is pre­sented to those offi­cers, war­rant offi­cers and enlisted sol­diers, in the grade of Colonel and below, who par­tic­i­pate in active ground com­bat while assigned as a mem­ber of an infantry or Spe­cial Forces unit, brigade or smaller size.

“Jerry would assume a two-year term as National Com­man­der from mid-October of this year to mid-October 2014,” said Com­bat Infantrymen’s Asso­ci­a­tion Ohio Com­man­der Chris Callen. “Vote tab­u­la­tion will be in Octo­ber. As it stands right now Jerry looks to be the clear front-runner. The National Com­man­der post would be a tremen­dous ben­e­fit to both Post 8736 and to Sunbury.”

Jodrey, who has been a Vet­er­ans of For­eign Wars mem­ber since 1966, entered the mil­i­tary in 1963 as an infantry­man and served in Viet­nam from 1966 to 1967.

Jodrey is a recip­i­ent of a Bronze Star and Pur­ple Heart (wounded twice), a Com­bat Infantry Badge, a Medal of Gal­lantry from the Repub­lic of Vietnam’s gov­ern­ment, plus numer­ous other soldier’s com­men­da­tion medals.

Fol­low­ing his tour of duty in Viet­nam Jodrey remained in the Army, before retir­ing as a Mas­ter Sergeant in 1990.

Jodrey is fairly low-key about serv­ing as Post 8736 Com­man­der, not­ing instead the post membership’s involve­ment in the local com­mu­nity and con­tin­ued sup­port of active mil­i­tary per­son­nel and mil­i­tary veterans.

“The Sun­bury VFW has been very active in ser­vice and com­mu­nity sup­port events since 1974 when it came into exis­tence with 25 char­ter mem­bers,” Jodrey said dur­ing a Novem­ber inter­view. “Today the post has 278 mem­bers who have ded­i­cated them­selves to com­mu­nity ser­vice for the fam­i­lies and schools in our area. I’m just a frac­tion of that effort.”

Jodrey noted that in addi­tion to sup­port­ing the Ohio Fallen Heroes Memo­r­ial and local schools, Post 8736 mem­bers recently pro­vided upgrades to Veteran’s Memo­r­ial on Sun­bury Vil­lage Square and have been work­ing with the Rose­crans Head­quar­ters Unit to get a bronze eques­trian statue of Maj. Gen. William Starke Rose­crans placed on the square.

Post 8736 also sup­ports Memo­r­ial Day and Veteran’s Day activ­i­ties, is home to the Com­bat Infantry Badge Asso­ci­a­tion Region 7 Head­quar­ters, and also home of the Chris Callen Foun­da­tion that sup­ports needy mil­i­tary families.

“Post 8736 is always out there look­ing for vet­er­ans and active mil­i­tary folks who need help,” Jodrey said. “And we have a very active Ladies Aux­il­iary that sup­ports our com­mu­nity and helps take care of needy fam­i­lies. Ser­vice to the com­mu­nity — that’s what we’re all about.”

In addi­tion to being the founder of the Ohio Fallen Heroes Memo­r­ial, Jodrey is also a 2012 All-State VFW Com­man­der and a 2012 All-American VFW Commander.

Posted by Gary Henery on Feb 12 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.