Senate investigation into Coast Guard finds that sexual misconduct is a ‘pervasive problem’ throughout the service

By CNN Newsource

Published August 7, 2024 9:02 AM

By Melanie Hicken and Blake Ellis, CNN

(CNN) — Senators investigating misconduct within the US Coast Guard have heard from more than 80 whistleblowers whose stories detailed “systemic sexual assault and harassment, including a culture of silencing, retaliation, and failed accountability,” according to a report released Wednesday.

The 48-page majority staff report is from the Homeland Security Committee’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. It’s the first to be released out of a string of ongoing government inquiries triggered by CNN’s reporting on a secret Coast Guard probe into sexual abuse at its prestigious Coast Guard Academy. That investigation, dubbed Operation Fouled Anchor, was kept secret from the public and even Congress despite substantiating dozens of past assaults.

Senators said the accounts of sexual abuse and harassment they heard spanned from the 1970s to the 2020s and extended beyond the academy to the entire service.

“The voices of these whistleblowers make clear that sexual assault and sexual harassment in the Coast Guard are fleet-wide problems, impacting enlisted members and officers just as pervasively as cadets,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, chair of the subcommittee who represents Connecticut, where the academy is based, wrote at the beginning of the report. “For far too long, Coast Guard survivors have felt unheard and unseen. They have been brushed aside and silenced.”

The Coast Guard did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report, titled “A Pervasive Problem: Voices of Coast Guard Sexual Assault and Harassment Survivors.”

Senators said the evidence they gathered showed that the Coast Guard has conducted inadequate investigations into misconduct, failed to hold alleged perpetrators accountable and maintained a culture that continues to foster misconduct.

Blumenthal wrote that the key to changing the agency’s culture will be “meaningful accountability” for alleged perpetrators and those who cover up their misdeeds, saying “our continuing investigation is likely to provide evidence that will assist and motivate the Coast Guard to impose discipline.”

In one account shared with the subcommittee, an enlisted woman recounted how a manager had asked her “to think about these men and their careers” in response to the woman’s account that she had experienced “months of sexual misconduct.” “They could lose their jobs over this, and you could ruin their lives,” the woman recalled being told. “No one will believe you. Do you want that? I want you to think about all of this before you decide to tell anyone else.”

One whistleblower was told the Coast Guard was dropping sexual misconduct charges against her alleged perpetrator because the statute of limitations had expired during the investigation, according to the report.

Another service member, who said he was sexually assaulted while on active duty, described “an investigation process that was retraumatizing, belittling, and ultimately did not provide meaningful justice” after Coast Guard investigators allegedly questioned his veracity and told him they found his alleged assailant’s account “believable.”

Female service members recounted being called a “slut,” “bitch” or “whore” “often in the context of them being associated with experiencing sexual assault or harassment.”

A former cadet shared how, after being denied a request for relocation away from her alleged assailant, she was forced to live 100 feet away from him in the room where she says he raped her.

“My assailant was in such close quarters I saw him on a daily basis in duties, in the halls, on the bulkhead … and even at meals,” she said, according to the report. “Every time I saw him, I immediately had a panic attack.”

One alleged victim who suffered severe injuries during an alleged assault, including a displaced pelvis, ribs and vertebra and a strained shoulder was reportedly assigned overnight duty and told she would have to find a replacement if she was unable to stand duty, according to the report.

The Senate report comes on the heels of a tense hearing in June where senators grilled the Coast Guard’s current leader, Commandant Adm. Linda Fagan, saying she has fostered a “culture of concealment” at the agency. While Fagan and other Coast Guard leaders have touted a number of changes to the way misconduct is handled by the agency, senators have said that it is clear that sexual assault remains “persistent and unacceptably prevalent” across the Coast Guard.

The subcommittee is set to host yet another hearing Thursday to publicly hear from the service’s enlisted ranks. The committee’s last hearing focused on testimony from Coast Guard members who said they were assaulted at the academy.

Separate investigations also remain ongoing by the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General, as well as the House Oversight Committee, which sent letters requesting the testimony of several former top Coast Guard officials, including former agency head Karl Schultz, who helmed the agency when Fouled Anchor’s damning conclusions were kept concealed. Schultz previously declined to comment to CNN.

The following article discusses sexual assault. If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673, or visit the website for additional resources.