[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 7698 Engrossed in House (EH)]

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117th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 7698

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 AN ACT


 
   To designate the outpatient clinic of the Department of Veterans 
   Affairs in Ventura, California, as the ``Captain Rosemary Bryant 
                      Mariner Outpatient 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) 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 
        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) 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''.

            Passed the House of Representatives September 19, 2022.

            Attest:

                                                                 Clerk.
117th CONGRESS

  2d Session

                               H. R. 7698

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 AN ACT

   To designate the outpatient clinic of the Department of Veterans 
   Affairs in Ventura, California, as the ``Captain Rosemary Bryant 
                      Mariner Outpatient Clinic''.