Leonard Lomell  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. 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 the 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," 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, in the Battle of Hürtgen Forest, he would again distinguish himself, earning a Silver Star for his heroism and leadership as the 2nd Ranger Battalion captured and held Hill 400. After the war he returned to Ocean County, New Jersey, becoming an attorney in Toms River. According to journalist Tom Brokaw, who devoted a chapter to Lomell in the "Heroes" section of his bestseller "The Greatest Generation," 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 attended Tennessee Wesleyan College, on an athletic scholarship and work program, where he was editor of the school newspaper and president of his fraternity. He graduated in 1941, then returned to New Jersey to work as a brakeman on a freight train before enlisting in the Army. While working in New Jersey he met his future wife, Charlotte Ewart, then training as a nurse. Lomell entered the Army in 1942 and initially served with the 76th Infantry Division, before volunteering for the Rangers. The initial mission of companies D, E and F of the 2nd Ranger Battalion was one of the most difficult of the entire invasion – scaling sheer cliffs at Pointe du Hoc, seizing control of its massively reinforced fortifications, and disabling five 155-millimeter cannons that allied intelligence reported had been emplaced there.