[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 9124 Enrolled Bill (ENR)]

        H.R.9124

                     One Hundred Eighteenth Congress

                                 of the

                        United States of America


                          AT THE SECOND SESSION

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


                                 An Act


 
 To name the Department of Veterans Affairs community-based outpatient 
   clinic in Auburn, California, as the ``Louis A. Conter VA Clinic''.

    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) Louis ``Lou'' Anthony Conter was born on September 13, 
    1921, in Ojibwa, Wisconsin.
        (2) Lt. Commander Lou Conter, the last remaining survivor of 
    the attack on the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor, was an American 
    hero.
        (3) On that fearful day, Petty Officer Conter helped evacuate 
    shipmates who were blinded, wounded, or burned, even restraining 
    some of his fellow shipmates from jumping overboard into the 
    burning sea.
        (4) In the days after the attack, he helped with recovering 
    bodies and putting out fires. Lou Conter's heroic actions saved the 
    lives of many of his shipmates on December 7, 1941.
        (5) Following Pearl Harbor, Conter continued serving during 
    WWII in New Guinea and in Europe as an enlisted naval aviation 
    pilot assigned to VP-11, a ``Black Cat'' Squadron.
        (6) Lou Conter would be awarded with the Distinguished Flying 
    Cross for actively taking part in the rescue of 219 Australians 
    trapped by Japanese troops in New Guinea.
        (7) Later, in the Korean War, he served on the USS Bon Homme 
    Richard as both an intelligence officer and a navy aviation pilot. 
    Following his service in the Korean War, he served as a military 
    intelligence advisor to three Presidents: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 
    John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson.
        (8) During the 1950s, Lou Conter played a prominent role in the 
    establishment and development of the Navy Survival, Evasion, 
    Resistance and Escape (SERE) training program.
        (9) In addition to the Distinguished Flying Cross, he was 
    awarded the Navy Commendation Medal and became the first recipient 
    of the USS Arizona Medal of Freedom.
        (10) Louis Conter retired from the Navy in 1967 after serving 
    28 years as a Lieutenant Commander.
        (11) Following his retirement, he generously gave his time to 
    share his personal experiences at veterans' ceremonies and by 
    giving lectures to students.
        (12) Lieutenant Commander Conter's lectures were popular with 
    generations of local students who were equally fascinated and 
    enthralled by his first-person accounts.
        (13) He is eminently deserving of recognition for his decades 
    of service to a grateful nation.
        (14) Lieutenant Commander Conter passed away in Grass Valley, 
    California on April 1, 2024.
SEC. 2. NAME OF DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS COMMUNITY-BASED 
OUTPATIENT CLINIC, AUBURN, CALIFORNIA.
    The Department of Veterans Affairs community-based outpatient 
clinic in Auburn, California, shall after the date of the enactment of 
this Act be known and designated as the ``Louis A. Conter 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 Louis A. Conter VA Clinic.

                               Speaker of the House of Representatives.

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