Four women who say they were subjected to sexual assault and harassment at the US Coast Guard Academy testified to Congress on Tuesday about how they were silenced, retaliated against and left battling severe mental trauma while alleged perpetrators continued to thrive within the service.
Their testimony, at times highly critical of the agency and at others deeply emotional, prompted senators on both sides of the political aisle to lambast current and former Coast Guard leaders. The hearing was sparked by CNN’s reporting on the results of a secret investigation — dubbed Operation Fouled Anchor — that substantiated dozens of sexual assaults at the Coast Guard Academy.
Senators from the Homeland Security Committee’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations said they were stunned that Coast Guard leaders, for years, had knowingly concealed reports of sexual misconduct and failed to hold accountable past perpetrators and the officials who covered up their dangerous and criminal behavior. Several lawmakers said it was time to start naming names.
The women who testified attended the academy at different times from the 1980s all the way up to present day, but had similar stories of abuse.
A current cadet said she was forced to continue studying and living alongside the student who sexually assaulted her just weeks into her freshman year. A graduate said she attempted suicide after she was raped and sexually assaulted by two different classmates. A third said the student who groped her in front of dozens of laughing onlookers remains an officer in the Coast Guard today. And a fourth spoke of how she was punished for the damage to her door after two students broke it down and attacked her and her roommate in their beds.
Senator Richard Blumenthal, the panel’s chairman, said he intends to hold additional hearings addressing the Coast Guard’s “culture of cover-up.” He noted that the Coast Guard has not fully cooperated with the Senate investigation and that subpoenas will be issued if necessary – saying past and current leaders of both the academy and the agency may be called to answer for the decisions they have made.
“It’s a culture that has all too often victimized survivors twice – first when they are assaulted, or harassed, and then later when the leaders in command have failed to hold the perpetrators fully accountable, and it’s a culture that has fostered fear,” said Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, where the academy is based. “This is not just about Fouled Anchor … it is about a Coast Guard that has lost its way … it is about a Coast Guard that has abandoned its moral compass.”
The Coast Guard issued a statement following the hearing that reiterated its past apologies and acknowledgment of failures. “We recognize and applaud the tremendous courage of the witnesses who came forward to share their personal stories at today’s hearing,” the statement said. The agency did not immediately address the senators comments about how the Coast Guard was not fully cooperating with the probe.
“The Coast Guard deeply regrets the trauma that victims of sexual assault and sexual harassment experience,” the statement said. “We continue to take steps to improve accountability and transparency within the Service and will continue to work with Congress.”
The Senate inquiry is one of several ongoing government probes announced in the wake of CNN’s reporting, which found that rapes and other sexual abuse at the Coast Guard Academy had been ignored and often covered up by high-ranking officials. Tuesday’s hearing followed a report by the Coast Guard last week, in which it acknowledged past failures and ordered a series of reforms.
The women who testified provided not only their personal experiences, but also proposals for what they believe needs to be changed to protect the service that most of them said they still love. Their suggestions included strengthening the security of dorm rooms, providing survivors with more experienced legal counsel and easier access to benefits, and ensuring those who are kicked out of the academy for committing serious misconduct be prevented from joining another military branch.
The Coast Guard said the “reflections and recommendations” detailed by the survivors will be “essential to our efforts to continuously improve our prevention and response policies.”
Kyra Holmstrup, the current cadet who testified that she was sexually assaulted her freshman year, said that while the attack itself was traumatic, it was what happened after she reported the incident that continues to haunt her. Her peers stopped talking to her altogether. Her attacker, she said, harassed her repeatedly and violated a “no contact” order. She said some of his friends came to her room and warned her that she would ruin her assailant’s life if she pursued her case, and a chaplain she confided in told her that he was “such a good guy.” Court-martial charges were initiated against her attacker, but he was ultimately punished by being kicked out of the academy. She said she learned that he was still given an honorable discharge and that nothing prevented him from enlisting in the Coast Guard or any other military service.
“My attacker was able to walk away with almost no consequences. Nobody would know what he did to me,” she said in written testimony. “He was emboldened—bragging and sharing his excitement with others about re-enlisting. All I wanted to do was stop him from being able to do again what he did to me. That didn’t happen.”
Holmstrup, who serves as the president of the academy’s Cadets Against Sexual Assault group, said she has started to move forward by helping others navigate a reporting process that she says revictimizes survivors. She will graduate this coming spring and said she is heartened by new leadership at the academy and that “if there is time or a place for change within the Coast Guard and Coast Guard Academy, it is now.”
Holmstrup’s testimony provided a rare window into the current climate on campus and what students like her think about the controversy surrounding the Fouled Anchor investigation.
Sitting beside Holmstrup at the hearing was a former member of the class of 2008, Caitlin Maro. She said as soon as her freshman year began, she faced constant sexual harassment from her classmates. One fellow cadet, she said, repeatedly groped her – in front of others who laughed about it and egged him on, and under water during swim class. When she broke down and begged a professor for help, she said her allegations weren’t taken seriously and she had no choice but to leave the academy and start fresh at a different college.
Maro told the senators that current Coast Guard commandant, Adm. Linda Fagan, misled the public when she suggested that all the survivors from the Fouled Anchor probe had been contacted by investigators and all the perpetrators who the Coast Guard could hold accountable had faced consequences. Maro said she only learned her assault case has been included in the Coast Guard’s examination when she spoke with CNN, and she said her attacker is now a lieutenant commander in the coast guard. “He is thriving in a career I had hoped for.” The Coast Guard did not immediately respond to Maro’s criticism of Fagan.
Another former student, Melissa McCafferty, who graduated in 2011, told senators she was raped and assaulted, but had been too afraid to report the incidents at the time. The trauma, she said, drove her to take hundreds of pills in an attempt to take her life. She also spoke about her experience working at Coast Guard headquarters, saying she believes the cover-up culture comes straight from the top.
“I have repeatedly witnessed senior leaders dismiss substantiated reports of harassment, assault, abuse, and retaliation in order to shield fellow officers and friends from any form of disciplinary action,” said McCafferty, a retired Coast Guard lieutenant and recent Georgetown Law graduate. “In refusing to acknowledge and address the past, senior leaders have implicitly condemned the Coast Guard’s future.”
Jennifer Yount, a member of the second class of women admitted to the academy, testified that she was devastated by how little has changed since her graduation in 1981. She testified that because she was disciplined for the damage her attacker did to her door when he broke into her room, she knew nothing would come of reporting the incident. So she stayed quiet, eventually becoming a commander in the Coast Guard where she said she continued to face sexual harassment.
She told senators the Coast Guard’s recent apologies and proposed reforms don’t do enough to remedy the damage that has already been done.
“Coast Guard leadership has insisted on focusing on the future,” she said. “Until the Coast Guard acknowledges the breadth and seriousness of what has happened…we cannot move forward and take the steps necessary to affect meaningful change. A cultural transformation of the academy and the Coast Guard must occur.”
The testimony made an impression on senators.
“I just want to say this testimony is some of the most powerful I’ve heard in my entire term in the United States Senate and I’ve heard a lot of powerful testimony,” Blumenthal said.
Sen. Ron Johnson, a Republican from Wisconsin, echoed that sentiment: “This is probably some of the most powerful, important, and on point testimony I’ve heard.”
Do you have information or a story to share about the Coast Guard past or present? Email [email protected] and [email protected].
CNN’s Audrey Ash, Pamela Brown and Yahya Abou-Ghazala contributed to this report.
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