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…
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