H. R. 3665 

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 medical center of the Department of Veterans Affairs in San 

Diego, California, as the Jennifer Moreno Department of Veterans Affairs Medical 

Center, and to support the designation of a component of such medical center 

in honor of Kathleen Bruyere. 

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 1,255 health care facilities of 

the Department of Veterans of Affairs, two are named for 

women veterans. 

(2) From 2002 through 2006, Jennifer Madai Moreno was 

an active member of the San Diego High School Junior Reserve 

Officer Training Corps (JROTC), which is a Department of 

the Army Honor Unit with Distinction, the highest rating by 

the Army. She was also chosen to be a member of the San 

Diego Unified School District Brigade Staff. As a high school 

senior, she rose quickly to become the top junior marksman 

in California through the Civilian Marksmanship Program. 

(3) Moreno accepted a JROTC scholarship to the University 

of San Francisco (USF) for Nursing, becoming the first person 

in her family to go to college. While at USF, she was chosen 

for Leadership Development Training. She ultimately achieved 

the highest level of physical fitness in her ROTC unit. 

(4) Following her graduation from USF with a Bachelor 

of Science degree in Nursing in 2010, Moreno received her 

commission in the United States Army as a Second Lieutenant 

Nurse Corps Officer. 

(5) Upon commissioning, Moreno served as a Gold Bar 

Recruiter from July 2010 to September 2010. 

(6) Moreno was chosen to attend and completed the Basic 

Airborne Course in Fort Benning, Georgia and Army Medical 

Department Officer Basic Course at Ft. Sam Houston, Texas. 

(7) Moreno was then assigned to Madigan Army Medical 

Center, Joint Base Lewis McCord, Washington in January 2011, 

where she served as a Clinical Staff Nurse on medical-surgical 

unit. Moreno earned her certification as a Medical Surgical 

Registered Nurse in February 2011. 

(8) Moreno volunteered for a position with U.S. Army Special Operations Command in 2011. She was selected into the 

SOC Cultural Support Team program. She was deployed to 

Afghanistan in June 2013 with the Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment. 
H. R. 3665—2 

(9) On October 6, 2013, Moreno was attached to a U.S. 

Army Ranger unit on a night mission in the Zhari district 

in Kandahar province to capture a high-value target when 

four explosive devices were triggered. 

(10) During the last moments of Moreno’s life, she reportedly heard a call to help a wounded soldier struck by a blast. 

Moreno did not hesitate to respond to the call for help. As 

she made her way to help a fallen soldier, she triggered the 

fifth explosion, which ended her life. 

(11) Moreno was the first Nurse CST member to die in 

action. Part of her legacy is the number of young women 

coming from medical fields seeking out voluntary assignments 

to join the CST program. 

(12) Moreno was the first combat casualty to be buried 

at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery in San Diego since the 

post-9/11 conflicts began. She received full military honors. 

(13) After graduating from college in 1966, Kathleen Mae 

Bruyere was accepted into U.S. Navy Officer Candidate School, 

after which she was assigned as an on-campus Navy recruiting 

officer in California. 

(14) Bruyere was named to the staff of Rear Admiral Allen 

Hill in 1975, becoming the first woman to serve as flag secretary 

to an admiral. 

(15) In January 1976, Bruyere was chosen as one of 12 

Women of the Year on the cover of Time Magazine. 

(16) In 1977, Bruyere joined five other women officers 

who sued the United States Secretary of the Navy and the 

United States Secretary of Defense over restrictions that prevented women from serving on combat aircraft and ships. This 

led to the 1948 Women’s Armed Services Integration Act being 

struck down as unconstitutional, overturning a ban on women 

serving at sea. 

(17) In 1987, as Special Assistant to the Chief of Naval 

Operations for women’s policy, Bruyere helped conduct an 

examination of the status of Navy women, including career 

opportunities and complaints of sexism. The study led to 9,000 

sea-duty and command jobs opening up for women on 24 

combatant ships. 

(18) In 1991, Bruyere was assigned as Commanding Officer 

for the Navy Recruit Training Command at Orlando, Florida. 

At the time, it was the Navy’s only boot camp that included 

women. Bruyere oversaw the training of 30,000 enlistees, one 

third of them women. 

(19) In 1994, Bruyere retired from the Navy as a Captain 

after 28 years of service. 

(20) From 2012 until shortly before her death in September 

2020, Bruyere was an active volunteer at Miramar National 

Cemetery, devoting almost 4,300 hours to helping visitors locate 

their loved ones’ graves and providing information about veterans’ burial benefits. 

(21) Bruyere was buried at Miramar National Cemetery 

with full military honors. 

(22) In May 2021, a panel of San Diego-area members 

of the Armed Forces, veterans, and military spouses recommended that the San Diego VA Medical Center be renamed 

in honor of Jennifer Moreno and an internal space be renamed 

in honor of Kathleen Bruyere. 
H. R. 3665—3 

SEC. 2. DESIGNATION OF JENNIFER MORENO DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS MEDICAL CENTER. 

(a) DESIGNATION.—The medical center of the Department of 

Veterans Affairs in San Diego, California, shall after the date 

of the enactment of this Act be known and designated as the 

Jennifer Moreno Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center. 

(b) REFERENCE.—Any reference in any law, regulation, map, 

document, paper, or other record of the United States to the medical 

center referred to in subsection (a) shall be considered to be a 

reference to the Jennifer Moreno Department of Veterans Affairs 

Medical Center. 

SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON DESIGNATION OF MEDICAL CENTER 

PHYSICAL COMPONENT AFTER KATHLEEN MAE BRUYERE. 

It is the sense of Congress that the Secretary of Veterans 

Affairs should designate a prominent physical space within the 

Jennifer Moreno Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, 

as designated pursuant to section 2, in honor of Kathleen Mae 

Bruyere. 

Speaker of the House of Representatives. 

Vice President of the United States and

President of the Senate.