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.