The U.S. Senate has initiated an inquiry into the mishandling of reports of sexual assaults and rapes at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, which came to light after CNN reported on the internal investigation in June.
In 2014, the Coast Guard launched an investigation into allegations that the academy mishandled dozens of rape and sexual assault reports—implicating 43 individuals—from the late 1980s until 2006. The probe was kept private until CNN reported on it in June.
Chairman Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Ranking Member Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said the probe—dubbed Operation Fouled Anchor—ended in January 2020 but was not disclosed to Congress.
“This delay in disclosure raises serious questions about why information about the conduct of [U.S. Coast Guard] personnel and safety of cadets was withheld for so long,” the senators wrote in the letter.
The senators emphasized the importance of holding accountable the leaders who oversaw or potentially contributed to the environment in which misconduct occurred and took no action.
“It is unclear whether those responsible have continued their careers in the Coast Guard, received higher positions of authority, or left service and escaped accountability all together,” the letter reads.
“The public deserves to know why so many reported cases of sexual assault and harassment were allowed to go uninvestigated for so many years,” it added.
The senators said that a memorandum summarizing the investigation in January 2020 demonstrated that the academy was aware of the allegations.
“According to this memo, the academy was aware of allegations against 30 of the 43 individuals implicated at the time of the alleged assault, however, only five were contemporaneously reported to USCG investigative services and/or local law enforcement,” they said.
The senators requested that the Coast Guard provide, by Oct. 30, all service record entries associated with subjects investigated as part of Operation Fouled Anchor, including reports, updates, memoranda, and other materials.
US Coast Guard Issued Apology
The Coast Guard issued an apology in July for not taking “appropriate action” years ago when it failed to adequately handle cases of sexual assault and harassment at the service’s Connecticut academy.The military branch also acknowledged it did not widely disclose its six-year internal investigation into dozens of cases from 1988 to 2006.
“The Coast Guard owns this failure and apologizes to each of the victims and their loved ones,” a Coast Guard spokesperson said in a statement.
The Coast Guard said it ultimately “took action to hold accountable those known perpetrators who remained within CGIS’s jurisdiction,” but did not say how many.
It also claimed that Coast Guard officials had reached out to all known victims and “invited them to individual, in-person meetings to provide each of them with information on their specific cases and access to support services.”
The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, which has oversight of the Coast Guard, said that it was not informed of the probe until a recent informal briefing with Senate staff.
They demanded documents and records related to the investigation, which identified 62 substantiated incidents of rape, sexual assault, and sexual harassment that occurred at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, or by academy cadets.
The Senate demanded answers about whether any individuals with substantiated claims against them are now employed by the Department of Homeland Security and whether they have security clearances.
