San Diego Union-Tribune: Biden signs bill renaming VA Medical Center for fallen San Diego Army nurse Capt. Jennifer Moreno
President Joe Biden signed legislation Monday renaming the Veterans Affairs medical center in San Diego in honor of Capt. Jennifer Moreno, an Army nurse killed in 2013 during a Special Operations raid in Afghanistan.
The bill, written by Rep. Mike Levin, D-San Juan Capistrano, changes the name of the medical center to “Jennifer Moreno Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center.”
The White House thanked each San Diego representative by name — Democrats Levin, Scott Peters, Sara Jacobs and Juan Vargas as well as Republican Darrell Issa in a statement announcing the change. The bi-partisan bill was cosponsored by every member of the California Congressional delegation.
After leaving the White House signing ceremony Monday, Levin told The San Diego Union-Tribune it is important to recognize the sacrifices that women — and women of color — make while serving in uniform, adding that “virtually none” of the thousands of Veterans Affairs facilities in the U.S. are named for women.
“It’s an opportunity for her to serve as an inspiration for young women and women of color,” Levin said.
Moreno, a 2006 graduate of San Diego High School, was killed Oct. 6, 2013, by an improvised explosive device during a Special Operations raid in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan. Moreno was attached to the Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment as part of the Cultural Support Team program, which put women on the front lines at a time when they were still barred from full-time combat jobs in the military. She was 25 when she died.
Moreno grew up in Logan Heights and was part of San Diego High School’s Army ROTC program. She went on to study nursing at the University of San Francisco on an ROTC scholarship and attended the Army’s Basic Airborne Course, commonly known as “jump school,” in 2009. She was commissioned in the Army upon graduation.
While stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash., Moreno volunteered for a program that embedded female soldiers with Special Operations units to help soldiers on the front lines deal with women in Afghanistan, whose interactions with men could be seen as inappropriate in their culture.
On Oct. 6, 2013, Moreno’s unit executed a raid on a compound thought to house a high-value Taliban target. During the raid, an Afghan woman wearing explosives detonated herself, triggering other IEDs around the compound, injuring several soldiers. Moreno rushed to aide one of them, triggering another IED. Moreno and three fellow soldiers were killed in the attack. Another thirty were wounded, the Army said at the time.
Moreno was posthumously promoted to captain and awarded the Bronze Star with a “V” device for valor.
A panel that included local veterans convened by Levin in 2020 settled on Moreno’s name after considering several female veterans with San Diego connections, according to its dedication report.
Another candidate recognized in the new bill, Navy Capt. Kathleen Bruyere, will have a prominent space at the medical center named for her. Bruyere, who died in 2020, helped shaped women’s equity in the Navy and the military’s policy on sexual discrimination. She successfully sued the Navy and Defense secretaries in 1978 over the ban on women serving on board ships.
By: Andrew Dyer
Source: San Diego Union-Tribune