Members of the Coast Guard Academy Class of 2028 march at the service academy in New London, Conn. (Matt Thieme/U.S. Coast Guard)
Nearly 70 Coast Guard veterans on Tuesday called on senators investigating the service’s sexual-assault scandal to force all Coast Guard leaders involved in the service’s internal investigation to testify in Congress about the yearslong cover-up.
The service veterans, including many former commanders, have bonded together to make the request after a whistleblower said she was told not to provide some sexual-assault victims the documentation needed to get help from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
“Please support Coast Guard women and men survivors who have borne the scars of their abuse for years without support from past and current Coast Guard leaders,” the group wrote in a letter sent to Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Ron Johnson, R-Wis., the leaders of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs’ subpanel on investigations. The offices of both senators confirmed they received the letter.
Sens. Ron Johnson, R-Wis. and Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis. listen during a discussion at a Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing in 2015. (Stars and Stripes)
The subpanel began investigating the Coast Guard last year over the cover-up of Operation Fouled Anchor — a 2020 report based on a five-year inquiry into the handling of sexual assault and harassment at the Coast Guard Academy prior to 2006.
The Coast Guard only notified Congress about the existence of Fouled Anchor after CNN reporters began digging into it in 2023 — three years after the service decided not to disclose the investigative report.
“It is well past time for the subcommittee to issue a subpoena to the Coast Guard for all responsive records on Operation Fouled Anchor,” according to a statement from Johnson’s office. “The Coast Guard must be held accountable for covering up its investigation into sexual assaults as well as its obstruction of the subcommittee’s oversight efforts.”
Denise Rucker Krepp, a former Coast Guard attorney who later worked as the Maritime Administration chief counsel, and retired Cmdr. Jennifer Yount, a 1981 graduate of the Coast Guard Academy, were the driving force behind the letter.
“I don’t know how you recover until you start holding people accountable,” Yount said.
Retired leaders named in the letter include former commandant Adm. Karl Schultz and his vice commandant Adm. Charles Ray, as well as recently retired vice commandant Adm. Steve Poulin, who was chief counsel to the Coast Guard when the investigation began. Also listed is the former director of the Coast Guard Investigative Service Michael Berkow.
Some names listed of current Coast Guard leaders who could have worked on Fouled Anchor include vice commandant Adm. Kevin Lunday, Vice Adm. Paul Thomas, Vice Adm. Michael McAllister, Rear Adm. Steve Andersen, Rear Adm. Melissa Bert and Cal Lederer, who has been the deputy chief counsel to the Coast Guard since 2002.
Adm. Linda Fagan, who is the commandant now, testified last month before the investigative subpanel about Operation Fouled Anchor and has committed to improving reporting and prevention of sexual assault across the Coast Guard. She also said no one had been disciplined for the cover-up because the service’s inspector general is still investigating.
Adm. Linda Fagan, commandant of the Coast Guard, testifies June 11, 2024, during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee subpanel hearing in Washington. (Mariam Zuhaib/AP)
“Our failure to share the report with Congress was a mistake that prevented appropriate oversight and further eroded trust,” Fagan said during the June 12 hearing. “I cannot change the past but as the commandant today, I reaffirm to our workforce past and present that I remain steadfast in my commitment to making lasting cultural change.”
The day before Fagan’s testimony, Shannon Norenberg released a statement alleging the service used her in 2018 to continue the Fouled Anchor cover-up while she worked as a sexual-assault response coordinator at the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn.
One of the most egregious claims, Yount said, was Norenberg was told not to give victims a form known as CG-6095 to provide to the VA for support as she met with them about Fouled Anchor. Norenberg was also told to tell victims that Congress was aware of the situation to discourage them from reaching out, which she said she now knows wasn’t true at the time.
“We believe that the Coast Guard’s determination to not provide the Operation Fouled Anchor victims with their CG-6095s was a deliberate action to further ensure Congress and the public would not become aware of the investigation and subsequent cover-up,” the veterans wrote. “It was an action that stains the honor of our service. It was an action that delayed recovery for Coast Guard sexual-assault survivors.”
The signatures to the letter include men, women, enlisted personnel, officers, civilian personnel and academy graduates dating to 1975.
