HARTFORD, Conn. — Former top Coast Guard officials hid a yearslong investigation into sexual assault and harassment at the service’s academy from both Congress and the public after leaders debated the fallout from a potential disclosure, according to a U.S. Senate committee report released Friday.
Coast Guard officials also took steps to remove references to the investigation, named Operation Fouled Anchor, from records submitted to Congress, according to the report by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. The report followed similar findings released last week by the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability.
“Today’s report confirms and provides additional powerful evidence that the cover-up of sexual assault in the Coast Guard was deliberate and purposeful and longstanding,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat who chairs the committee, said Friday. “The public deserves an explanation. So do the survivors.”
A Coast Guard spokesperson released a statement Friday evening.
“The Coast Guard is keenly aware of and is aggressively responding to the unacceptable activities underpinning the report — namely sexual assault and sexual harassment,” the statement said. “The Coast Guard is working proactively to prevent and reduce these devastating crimes, secure justice for survivors and provide the care and support victims need and deserve.”
Messages to officials at the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, were not immediately returned Friday. The Coast Guard previously apologized for how it handled sexual misconduct complaints and said it has made numerous improvements.
Operation Fouled Anchor ran from 2014 to 2019. The investigation reviewed more than 100 allegations of sexual assault at the academy made from the early 1990s to 2006 and how they were handled. Coast Guard officials, however, did not fully disclose its existence to Congress or the public until last year. The existence of the investigation was first reported by CNN.
The investigation found that dozens of sexual assault and harassment cases involving academy cadets had been mishandled by the school, including the prevention of some perpetrators from being prosecuted.
When the investigation did become public, it sparked calls for reform and accountability for offenders and those who protected them. They also resulted in multiple government investigations and formal complaints by more than 20 former cadets who said they were sexually…
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