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

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.

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.