[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.