I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2170
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.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH18, 2025
Mr. S
MITHof New Jersey (for himself, Mr. NORCROSS, Mr. VANDREW, Mr.
C
ONAWAY, Mr. GOTTHEIMER, Mr. PALLONE, Mr. KEAN, Mr. MENENDEZ,
Ms. P
OU, Mrs. MCIVER, Ms. SHERRILL, and Mrs. WATSONCOLEMAN)
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, VA Clinic, and for other pur-
poses.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. FINDINGS. 3
Congress finds the following: 4
(1) The Department of Veterans Affairs out-5
patient clinic, a state-of-the-art facility serving the 6
region’s largest veteran population, located at 1055 7
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Hooper Avenue, recently opened in the Township of 1
Toms River, Ocean County, New Jersey, in the 2
Fourth Congressional District. 3
(2) The local community, including veterans, 4
believe that this facility deserves to be named in 5
honor of Second Lieutenant Leonard G. ‘‘Bud’’ 6
Lomell, a long time Toms River and Ocean County 7
resident, who served courageously and heroically 8
during World War II. 9
(3) Second Lieutenant Lomell was born in 10
1920, the adopted son of Scandinavian immigrant 11
parents living in Brooklyn, New York, and his fam-12
ily eventually moved to Point Pleasant Beach, New 13
Jersey. 14
(4) After graduating from Tennessee Wesleyan 15
College, Second Lieutenant Lomell was drafted into 16
the Army, serving first with the 76th (Liberty Bell) 17
Infantry Division. When the 2nd Ranger Battalion 18
was formed in April 1943, Leonard Lomell was in-19
vited to be the First Sergeant of D Company. 20
(5) On D-Day, June 6, 1944, First Sergeant 21
Lomell’s platoon landed at Pointe du Hoc, Nor-22
mandy, France, successfully scaling the cliffs, de-23
spite a withering German defensive barrage. 24
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(6) Pointe du Hoc, a rugged 100-foot-high 1
coastal promenade along the English Channel was 2
located between the American landing beaches, 3
Omaha and Utah. It was heavily defended by the 4
Germans and the mission of Colonel James Earl 5
Rudder’s 225 Rangers was to disable five 155-milli-6
meter artillery guns, which could have rained artil-7
lery fire on the American forces landing on either 8
beach, jeopardizing the invasion. 9
(7) Unknown to the American forces, the guns 10
had been moved from the tip of the Pointe and hid-11
den, pointed in the direction of Utah Beach, in an 12
inland apple orchard nearly a mile from the coastal 13
batteries. 14
(8) First Sergeant Lomell and another Ranger, 15
Sergeant Jack Kuhn, found the guns undefended, 16
and, with Kuhn providing cover, Lomell destroyed 17
the weapons with thermite grenades and used his 18
rifle butt to smash the sights of the guns. 19
(9) First Sergeant Lomell subsequently received 20
a battlefield promotion to Second Lieutenant, and 21
was awarded some of the Army’s highest honors, in-22
cluding the Distinguished Service Cross, Purple 23
Heart, and Silver Star. 24
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(10) Renowned historian Steven Ambrose re-1
garded First Sergeant Lomell’s valiant acts along 2
with General Eisenhower’s decision to invade on 3
June 6, 1944, as the most significant actions ensur-4
ing the Allied victory on D-Day. 5
(11) Following World War II, Second Lieuten-6
ant Lomell was appointed as the First Director of 7
the newly organized Ocean County Veteran’s Service 8
Bureau, serving from 1946 until 1948, before he at-9
tended law school on the G.I. Bill. 10
(12) Leonard Lomell and his wife, Charlotte 11
Ewart Lomell, settled their growing family in Toms 12
River, where, in 1957, Leonard established his own 13
law firm, which grew to become one of Ocean Coun-14
ty’s largest firms. 15
(13) Leonard Lomell was involved in numerous 16
local civic, business, and charitable organizations, in-17
cluding serving as president of the Ocean County 18
Bar Association, a director of the First National 19
Bank of Toms River, a member of the Dover Town-20
ship Board of Education, and a co-founder of the 21
Garden State Philharmonic. He was also National 22
Commander of the Legion of Valor (1964-1965) and 23
President of the Ranger Battalion Association of 24
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World War II (1967) and served on the French 1
Committee of Pointe du Hoc. 2
(14) Second Lieutenant Lomell is profiled in 3
‘‘The Greatest Generation’’, former NBC news An-4
chor Tom Brokaw’s testament to the heroes of 5
World War II, and ‘‘Len Lomell: D-Day Hero’’, Ste-6
ven M. Gillon’s entry in the American War Heroes 7
Series. 8
(15) As a decorated war hero, model citizen, 9
and dedicated husband and father, Second Lieuten-10
ant Lomell is exceedingly deserving of the post-11
humous honor of having a new and long-awaited 12
Toms River-based Department of Veterans Affairs 13
outpatient clinic named in his honor. 14
SEC. 2. NAME OF DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS 15
COMMUNITY-BASED OUTPATIENT CLINIC, 16
TOMS RIVER, NEW JERSEY. 17
The community-based outpatient clinic of the Depart-18
ment of Veterans Affairs in Toms River, New Jersey, 19
shall, after the date of the enactment of this Act, be known 20
and designated as the ‘‘Leonard G. ‘Bud’ Lomell VA Clin-21
ic’’. Any reference to such clinic in any law, regulation, 22
map, document, record, or other paper of the United 23
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States shall be considered to be a reference to the Leonard 1
G. ‘‘Bud’’ Lomell VA Clinic. 2
Æ
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