WASHINGTON D.C., DC — Tuesday, Lawmakers on Capitol Hill listened to survivors tell their stories of sexual harassment and assault at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy (USCGA) in New London, CT.
“I was in fear because he was my next-door neighbor,” said First Class Cadet Kyra Holmstrup through tears.
Holmstrup is a senior at the USCGA. She was sexually assaulted during her second week at the Academy by a classmate.
“What I thought was an innocent ice cream date on campus turned into a sexual assault that has haunted me ever since,” Holmstrup continued. “We are always told that you just have to say no, but no to him was an invitation to try again.”
Holmstrom was one of five women who spoke Tuesday at the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations hearing.
“Over the course of three days, he repeatedly raped me in that room,” explained Lt. Melissa McCafferty, United States Coast Guard (Ret.), Class of 2011. “When I returned to the Academy, I told no one. I feared that if I reported this incident, I would be the one to face discipline.”
Caitlin Maro left the USCGA in 2005 after her assault.
“I was groped in a group, in a room with 30 of my peers and they watched and they laughed,” she said.
This hearing is the first step in one of multiple Congressional investigations now underway after reports the USCGA failed to disclose the results of an internal probe into sexual misconduct, called “Operation Fouled Anchor.”
“It is an abject failure of integrity, that senior leaders have concealed, condoned and otherwise enabled this behavior to thrive,” said McCafferty.
“Fouled Anchor” found dozens of sexual assault cases at the academy were mishandled from 1988 to 2006.
Tuesday, survivors described an environment of harassment, retaliation and fear.
“My main perpetrator is currently a lieutenant commander in the Coast Guard,” Maro said. “He is thriving in a career that I had hoped for.”
Holmstrup added, “This committee may not be able to solve sexual assault, but you can solve some of the barriers that we face.”
The Coast Guard did admit these failings in an Accountability And Transparency Review report released last week, but lawmakers and some survivors say that didn’t go far enough.
In a statement, a Coast Guard spokesperson said, “The Coast Guard failed in its handling of some past sexual assault cases, and it failed again when this information was not shared with Congress. We sincerely apologize for these failures and the harm they caused. The Coast Guard deeply regrets the trauma that victims of sexual assault and sexual harassment experience and how it erodes the trust of current and former members of our Service.”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) — who chairs the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations — said there will be more hearings and if Coast Guard leadership does not comply with this investigation, he will issue subpoenas.
Emma Wulfhorst is a political reporter for FOX61 News. She can be reached at ewulfhorst@fox61.com. Follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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