119-hr2170

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2170 Enrolled Bill

    (ENR) ]

 H.R.2170

 One Hundred Nineteenth Congress

 of the

 United States of America

 AT THE FIRST SESSION

 Begun and held at the City of Washington on Friday,
 the third day of January, two thousand and twenty-five

 An Act

 To name the Department of Veterans Affairs community-based outpatient 
 clinic in Toms River, New Jersey, the Leonard G. 'Bud' Lomell, VA 
 Clinic, and for other purposes.

 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. FINDINGS.
 Congress finds the following:

    (1) The Department of Veterans Affairs outpatient clinic, a 
 state-of-the-art facility serving the region's largest veteran 
 population, located at 1055 Hooper Avenue, recently opened in the 
 Township of Toms River, Ocean County, New Jersey, in the Fourth 
 Congressional District.

    (2) The local community, including veterans, believe that this 
 facility deserves to be named in honor of Second Lieutenant Leonard 
 G. ``Bud'' Lomell, a long time Toms River and Ocean County 
 resident, who served courageously and heroically during World War 
 II.

    (3) Second Lieutenant Lomell was born in 1920, the adopted son 
 of Scandinavian immigrant parents living in Brooklyn, New York, and 
 his family eventually moved to Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey.

    (4) After graduating from Tennessee Wesleyan College, Second 
 Lieutenant Lomell was drafted into the Army, serving first with the 
 76th (Liberty Bell) Infantry Division. When the 2nd Ranger 
 Battalion was formed in April 1943, Leonard Lomell was invited to 
 be the First Sergeant of D Company.

    (5) On D-Day, June 6, 1944, First Sergeant Lomell's platoon 
 landed at Pointe du Hoc, Normandy, France, successfully scaling the 
 cliffs, despite a withering German defensive barrage.

    (6) Pointe du Hoc, a rugged 100-foot-high coastal promenade 
 along the English Channel was located between the American landing 
 beaches, Omaha and Utah. It was heavily defended by the Germans and 
 the mission of Colonel James Earl Rudder's 225 Rangers was to 
 disable five 155-millimeter artillery guns, which could have rained 
 artillery fire on the American forces landing on either beach, 
 jeopardizing the invasion.

    (7) Unknown to the American forces, the guns had been moved 
 from the tip of the Pointe and hidden, pointed in the direction of 
 Utah Beach, in an inland apple orchard nearly a mile from the 
 coastal batteries.

    (8) First Sergeant Lomell and another Ranger, Sergeant Jack 
 Kuhn, found the guns undefended, and, with Kuhn providing cover, 
 Lomell destroyed the weapons with thermite grenades and used his 
 rifle butt to smash the sights of the guns.

    (9) First Sergeant Lomell subsequently received a battlefield 
 promotion to Second Lieutenant, and was awarded some of the Army's 
 highest honors, including the Distinguished Service Cross, Purple 
 Heart, and Silver Star.

    (10) Renowned historian Steven Ambrose regarded First Sergeant 
 Lomell's valiant acts along with General Eisenhower's decision to 
 invade on June 6, 1944, as the most significant actions ensuring 
 the Allied victory on D-Day.

    (11) Following World War II, Second Lieutenant Lomell was 
 appointed as the First Director of the newly organized Ocean County 
 Veteran's Service Bureau, serving from 1946 until 1948, before he 
 attended law school on the G.I. Bill.

    (12) Leonard Lomell and his wife, Charlotte Ewart Lomell, 
 settled their growing family in Toms River, where, in 1957, Leonard 
 established his own law firm, which grew to become one of Ocean 
 County's largest firms.

    (13) Leonard Lomell was involved in numerous local civic, 
 business, and charitable organizations, including serving as 
 president of the Ocean County Bar Association, a director of the 
 First National Bank of Toms River, a member of the Dover Township 
 Board of Education, and a co-founder of the Garden State 
 Philharmonic. He was also National Commander of the Legion of Valor 
 (1964-1965) and President of the Ranger Battalion Association of 
 World War II

    (1967) and served on the French Committee of Pointe du 
 Hoc.

    (14) Second Lieutenant Lomell is profiled in ``The Greatest 
 Generation'', former NBC news Anchor Tom Brokaw's testament to the 
 heroes of World War II, and ``Len Lomell: D-Day Hero'', Steven M. 
 Gillon's entry in the American War Heroes Series.

    (15) As a decorated war hero, model citizen, and dedicated 
 husband and father, Second Lieutenant Lomell is exceedingly 
 deserving of the posthumous honor of having a new and long-awaited 
 Toms River-based Department of Veterans Affairs outpatient clinic 
 named in his honor.

SEC. 2. NAME OF DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS COMMUNITY-BASED 
OUTPATIENT CLINIC, TOMS RIVER, NEW JERSEY.
 The community-based outpatient clinic of the Department of Veterans 
Affairs in Toms River, New Jersey, shall, after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, be known and designated as the ``Leonard G. 
`Bud' Lomell VA Clinic''. Any reference to such clinic in any law, 
regulation, map, document, record, or other paper of the United States 
shall be considered to be a reference to the Leonard G. ``Bud'' Lomell 
VA Clinic.

 Speaker of the House of Representatives.

 Vice President of the United States and 
 President of the Senate.