[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 9997 Introduced in House (IH)]
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118th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 9997
To name the Department of Veterans Affairs community-based outpatient
clinic in Toms River, New Jersey, the Leonard G. 'Bud' Lomell, Jr. VA
Clinic, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
October 18, 2024
Mr. Smith of New Jersey (for himself, Mr. Norcross, Mr. Van Drew, and
Mr. Kim of New Jersey) introduced the following bill; which was
referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To name the Department of Veterans Affairs community-based outpatient
clinic in Toms River, New Jersey, the Leonard G. 'Bud' Lomell, Jr. 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,
SEC. 1. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) The Township of Toms River, Ocean County, New Jersey,
in the Fourth Congressional District, was designated as the
site for the new Department of Veterans Affairs outpatient
clinic, a state-of-the-art facility serving the region's large
veteran population, to be located at the corner of Hooper and
Caudina Avenues.
(2) The Mayor and the Township Council believe that this
facility deserves to be named in honor of Second Lieutenant
Leonard G. ``Bud'' Lomell, Jr., 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) Second Lieutenant Lomell attended Tennessee Wesleyan
College, and following college, he enlisted in the Army,
volunteering for the elite Ranger Corps, and was a member of
the Second Rangers Battalion during the June 6, 1944, D-Day
invasion, commanding his own platoon as First Sergeant.
(5) Then-First Sergeant Lomell's Platoon landed at Pointe-
du-Hoc, Normandy, France, a rugged 100-foot-high coastal
promenade along the English Channel coast located between the
American-targeted Omaha and Utah beaches, successfully scaling
the cliffs, despite a withering German defensive barrage.
(6) Pointe-du-Hoc was heavily defended by the Germans, and
the mission of the 225 Rangers was to disable five 155-
millimeter artillery guns, which could have rained artillery
fire on the Americans landing on either beach, jeopardizing the
invasion.
(7) Unknown to the Americans, 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 using
his rifle butt to smash the sights, saving countless Allied
lives.
(9) First Sergeant Lomell subsequently received a
battlefield promotion to Second Lieutenant, and was awarded
some of the military'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
attended law school on the G.I. Bill, eventually settling with
his family in Toms River and, in 1957, establishing his own law
firm, which grew to become one of Ocean County's largest.
(12) Serving as selflessly in civilian life as he did in
the military, Second Lieutenant Lomell was involved in numerous
civic and charitable organizations, including by 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 as a founding member of the
World War II Army Rangers Battalion Association.
(13) Second Lieutenant Lomell is profiled in the Greatest
Generation, former NBC news Anchor Tom Brokaw's testament to
the heroes of World War II.
(14) 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, Jr. 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,
Jr. VA Clinic.
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