I 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 3665 

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. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JUNE 1, 2021 

Mr. LEVIN of California (for himself, Mr. VARGAS, Ms. JACOBS of California, 

Mr. ISSA, Mr. PETERS, and Ms. BROWNLEY) introduced the following 

bill; which was referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs 

A BILL 

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. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. FINDINGS. 

4 Congress finds the following: 

5 (1) As of January 2021, of 1,255 health care 

6 facilities of the Department of Veterans of Affairs, 

7 two are named for women veterans. 


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1 (2) From 2002 through 2006, Jennifer Madai 

2 Moreno was an active member of the San Diego 

3 High School Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps 

4 (JROTC), which is a Department of the Army 

5 Honor Unit with Distinction, the highest rating by 

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

7 the San Diego Unified School District Brigade Staff. 

8 As a high school senior, she rose quickly to become 

9 the top junior marksman in California through the 

10 Civilian Marksmanship Program. 

11 (3) Moreno accepted a JROTC scholarship to 

12 the University of San Francisco (USF) for Nursing, 

13 becoming the first person in her family to go to col14 lege. While at USF, she was chosen for Leadership 

15 Development Training. She ultimately achieved the 

16 highest level of physical fitness in her ROTC unit. 

17 (4) Following her graduation from USF with a 

18 Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing in 2010, 

19 Moreno received her commission in the United 

20 States Army as a Second Lieutenant Nurse Corps 

21 Officer. 

22 (5) Upon commissioning, Moreno served as a 

23 Gold Bar Recruiter from July 2010 to September 

24 2010. 


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1 (6) Moreno was chosen to attend and completed 

2 the Basic Airborne Course in Fort Benning, Georgia 

3 and Army Medical Department Officer Basic Course 

4 at Ft. Sam Houston, Texas. 

5 (7) Moreno was then assigned to Madigan 

6 Army Medical Center, Joint Base Lewis McCord, 

7 Washington in January 2011, where she served as 

8 a Clinical Staff Nurse on medical-surgical unit. 

9 Moreno earned her certification as a Medical Sur10 gical Registered Nurse in February 2011. 

11 (8) Moreno volunteered for a position with U.S. 

12 Army Special Operations Command in 2011. She 

13 was selected into the SOC Cultural Support Team 

14 program. She was deployed to Afghanistan in June 

15 2013 with the Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment. 

16 (9) On October 6, 2013, Moreno was attached 

17 to a U.S. Army Ranger unit on a night mission in 

18 the Zhari district in Kandahar province to capture 

19 a high-value target when four explosive devices were 

20 triggered. 

21 (10) During the last moments of Moreno’s life, 

22 she reportedly heard a call to help a wounded soldier 

23 struck by a blast. Moreno did not hesitate to re24 spond to the call for help. As she made her way to 


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1 help a fallen soldier, she triggered the fifth explo2 sion, which ended her life. 

3 (11) Moreno was the first Nurse CST member 

4 to die in action. Part of her legacy is the number of 

5 young women coming from medical fields seeking 

6 out voluntary assignments to join the CST program. 

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

8 buried at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery in San 

9 Diego since the post-9/11 conflicts began. She re10 ceived full military honors. 

11 (13) After graduating from college in 1966, 

12 Kathleen Mae Bruyere was accepted into U.S. Navy 

13 Officer Candidate School, after which she was as14 signed as an on-campus Navy recruiting officer in 

15 California. 

16 (14) Bruyere was named to the staff of Rear 

17 Admiral Allen Hill in 1975, becoming the first 

18 woman to serve as flag secretary to an admiral. 

19 (15) In January 1976, Bruyere was chosen as 

20 one of 12 Women of the Year on the cover of Time 

21 Magazine. 

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

23 officers who sued the United States Secretary of the 

24 Navy and the United States Secretary of Defense 

25 over restrictions that prevented women from serving 


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1 on combat aircraft and ships. This led to the 1948 

2 Women’s Armed Services Integration Act being 

3 struck down as unconstitutional, overturning a ban 

4 on women serving at sea. 

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

6 of Naval Operations for women’s policy, Bruyere 

7 helped conduct an examination of the status of Navy 

8 women, including career opportunities and com9 plaints of sexism. The study led to 9,000 sea-duty 

10 and command jobs opening up for women on 24 

11 combatant ships. 

12 (18) In 1991, Bruyere was assigned as Com13 manding Officer for the Navy Recruit Training 

14 Command at Orlando, Florida. At the time, it was 

15 the Navy’s only boot camp that included women. 

16 Bruyere oversaw the training of 30,000 enlistees, 

17 one third of them women. 

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

19 a Captain after 28 years of service. 

20 (20) From 2012 until shortly before her death 

21 in September 2020, Bruyere was an active volunteer 

22 at Miramar National Cemetery, devoting almost 

23 4,300 hours to helping visitors locate their loved 

24 ones’ graves and providing information about vet25 erans’ burial benefits. 


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1 (21) Bruyere was buried at Miramar National 

2 Cemetery with full military honors. 

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

4 members of the Armed Forces, veterans, and mili5 tary spouses recommended that the San Diego VA 

6 Medical Center be renamed in honor of Jennifer 

7 Moreno and an internal space be renamed in honor 

8 of Kathleen Bruyere. 

9 SEC. 2. DESIGNATION OF JENNIFER MORENO DEPART10 MENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS MEDICAL CEN11 TER. 

12 (a) DESIGNATION.—The medical center of the De13 partment of Veterans Affairs in San Diego, California, 

14 shall after the date of the enactment of this Act be known 

15 and designated as the Jennifer Moreno Department of 

16 Veterans Affairs Medical Center. 

17 (b) REFERENCE.—Any reference in any law, regula18 tion, map, document, paper, or other record of the United 

19 States to the medical center referred to in subsection (a) 

20 shall be considered to be a reference to the Jennifer 

21 Moreno Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center. 


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1 SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON DESIGNATION OF MED2 ICAL CENTER PHYSICAL COMPONENT AFTER 

3 KATHLEEN MAE BRUYERE. 

4 It is the sense of Congress that the Secretary of Vet5 erans Affairs should designate a prominent physical space 

6 within the Jennifer Moreno Department of Veterans Af7 fairs Medical Center, as designated pursuant to section 

8 2, in honor of Kathleen Mae Bruyere. 

Æ 


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