An Act To designate the outpatient clinic of the Department of Veterans Affairs in Ventura, California, as the “Captain Rosemary Bryant Mariner Outpatient Clinic”.

Oct. 11, 2022

[H.R. 7698]

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) As of January 2021, of the 1,255 health care facilities of the Department of Veterans Affairs, two are named after women. (2) Rosemary Ann Bryant was born on April 2, 1953, in Harlingen, Texas, to Captain Cecil Bryant and Constance Boylan Bryant, a World War II Navy nurse. (3) Captain Mariner was the first woman to enroll in the aeronautics program at Purdue University in 1971. (4) Captain Mariner joined the Navy in 1973, and after graduating from officer candidate school that year, she became a member of the Navy’s first flight-training class for women. (5) In 1974, Captain Mariner was one of six women to earn her wings and in 1975 she became the first female Naval aviator to fly a jet attack aircraft. (6) In July 1990, Captain Mariner was named commander of Navy “Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron 34” at Naval Air Station Point Mugu in Ventura County, California. The unit was 30 percent female and made Captain Mariner the first woman to command an operational air squadron, even though women were still barred from flying combat missions. (7) Captain Mariner became a passionate advocate for women in the military, leading the Women Military Aviators and working with Congress and the Department of Defense to lift restrictions barring women from flying in combat. (8) Captain Mariner attended the National War College in the District of Columbia, earning a master’s degree in national security strategy and served on the staff of the Joint Chiefs at the Pentagon, and a professor of joint military studies at the National War College. (9) Captain Mariner retired from the Navy in 1997, and moved to Tennessee with her husband Commander Tommy Mariner and her daughter Emmalee. (10) During her Naval career Captain Mariner logged 17 landings on aircraft carriers and more than 3500 flight hours in 15 different aircraft. (11) In retirement, Captain Mariner continued her service in her community as a resident scholar in the University of 136 STAT. 2218 Tennessee’s Center for the Study of War and Society, and taught military history in UT’s history department for 15 years. (12) Captain Mariner passed away from ovarian cancer on January 24, 2019, in Knoxville, Tennessee. (13) In honor of Captain Mariner, the United States Navy conducted its first all-female flyover at the funeral service for Captain Mariner on Saturday, February 2, 2019, in Maynardville, Tennessee. (14) In July 2021, a panel of Ventura County members of the Armed Forces, veterans, and military spouses recommended that the Ventura Medical Center be named in honor of Captain Rosemary Bryant Mariner.

SEC. 2. DESIGNATION OF CAPTAIN ROSEMARY BRYANT MARINER OUTPATIENT CLINIC.(a)

Effective date.

Designation.—The outpatient clinic of the Department of Veterans Affairs in Ventura, California, shall after the date of the enactment of this Act be known and designated as the “Captain Rosemary Bryant Mariner Outpatient Clinic”. (b) References.—Any reference in a law, map, regulation, document, paper, or other record of the United States to the facility referred to in subsection (a) shall be deemed to be a reference to the “Captain Rosemary Bryant Mariner Outpatient Clinic”.

Approved October 11, 2022.