Leonard G. "Bud" Lomell (January 22, 1920 – March 1, 2011) was a highly decorated former United States Army Ranger who served in World War II. He is best known for his actions in the first hours of D-Day at Pointe du Hoc on the coast of Normandy, France. According to journalist Tom Brokaw, who devoted a chapter to Lomell in the Heroes section of his bestseller, The Greatest Generation, Leonard G. Lomell was the adopted son of Scandinavian immigrant parents who took him into their family as an infant in Brooklyn. A few years later his parents, George G. Lomell and Pauline Peterson Lomell, moved to Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey, where he graduated from Point Pleasant Beach High School. Lomell received an athletic schlarship to Tennessee Wesleyan College graduating in 1941. Lomell enlisted into the Army in 1942 and rapidly rose to First Sergeant in the 76th Infantry Division before volunteering for the Rangers. At 0710 on D-Day, the recently promoted 24 year-old First Sergeant Lomell, acting D company commander, and his 2nd Ranger Battalion landed just below the 100-foot cliffs at Pointe du Hoc on the Normandy coast, four miles west of the center of Omaha Beach. Pointe du Hoc was the site of the German Army's largest coastal weapons, five 155-millimeter German guns with a 25-kilometer range that endangered the tens of thousands of troops landing on Omaha Beach and Utah Beach, and thousands of watercraft in the English Channel supporting the Normandy invasion. Unbeknownst to Allied intelligence, the Germans had concealed the guns in an orchard, but left them operational and ready to fire. Through skill, courage and "pure luck," First Sergeant Lomell found and quickly disabled all five guns. Lomell was recognized by historian Stephen Ambrose as the single individual—other than Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower—most responsible for the success of D-Day. Six months later after receiving a battlefield commission to Second Lieutenant, he would again distinguish himself in the Battle of the Hurtgen Forest, earning a Silver Star for his heroism and leadership as the 2nd Ranger Battalion captured and held Hill 400. After the war 2LT Lomell returned to Ocean County, New Jersey, becoming an attorney in Toms River. Lomell returned to New Jersey in 1945, and married Charlotte Ewart on the second anniversary of D-Day. Leonard and Charlotte were eventually the parents of three daughters. He enrolled in law school at La Salle University and Rutgers University, passing the bar in 1951. He was the founder and senior member of the law firm of Lomell, Muccifori, Adler, Ravaschiere & Amabile, subsequently known as the Lomell Law Firm. He retired from the practice of law in the mid-1980s. In business, Lomell was a director of The First National Bank of Toms River and a director and vice-president of Statewide Bancorp. He was a director of the South Jersey Title Insurance Co., Atlantic City. Among his civic activities, he was a member of the Dover Township Board of Education; president of the Garden State Philharmonic Symphony Society; chairman of the Dover Township Juvenile Conference Committee; a member of the Community Memorial Hospital building committee; and a director of the Ocean County Historical Society. Lomell was a member of Christ Church, Episcopal, and served on its board, and as president of its Men's Club and legal counsel. He served as an Ocean County College Foundation trustee.[