[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 7698 Enrolled Bill (ENR)]

        H.R.7698

                    One Hundred Seventeenth Congress

                                 of the

                        United States of America


                          AT THE SECOND SESSION

           Begun and held at the City of Washington on Monday,
          the third day of January, two thousand and twenty-two


                                 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''.

                               Speaker of the House of Representatives.

                            Vice President of the United States and    
                                               President of the Senate.