Findings

Congress finds the following: (1)The Township of Toms River, Ocean County, New Jersey, in the Fourth Congressional District, was designated as the site for the new Department of Veterans Affairs outpatient clinic, a state-of-the-art facility serving the region’s large veteran population, to be located at the corner of Hooper and Caudina Avenues. (2)The Mayor and the Township Council believe that this facility deserves to be named in honor of Second Lieutenant Leonard G. Bud Lomell, Jr., 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)Second Lieutenant Lomell attended Tennessee Wesleyan College, and following college, he enlisted in the Army, volunteering for the elite Ranger Corps, and was a member of the Second Rangers Battalion during the June 6, 1944, D-Day invasion, commanding his own platoon as First Sergeant. (5)Then-First Sergeant Lomell’s Platoon landed at Pointe-du-Hoc, Normandy, France, a rugged 100-foot-high coastal promenade along the English Channel coast located between the American-targeted Omaha and Utah beaches, successfully scaling the cliffs, despite a withering German defensive barrage. (6)Pointe-du-Hoc was heavily defended by the Germans, and the mission of the 225 Rangers was to disable five 155-millimeter artillery guns, which could have rained artillery fire on the Americans landing on either beach, jeopardizing the invasion. (7)Unknown to the Americans, 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 using his rifle butt to smash the sights, saving countless Allied lives. (9)First Sergeant Lomell subsequently received a battlefield promotion to Second Lieutenant, and was awarded some of the military’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 attended law school on the G.I. Bill, eventually settling with his family in Toms River and, in 1957, establishing his own law firm, which grew to become one of Ocean County’s largest. (12)Serving as selflessly in civilian life as he did in the military, Second Lieutenant Lomell was involved in numerous civic and charitable organizations, including by 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 as a founding member of the World War II Army Rangers Battalion Association. (13)Second Lieutenant Lomell is profiled in the Greatest Generation, former NBC news Anchor Tom Brokaw’s testament to the heroes of World War II. (14)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.