A Fouled Anchor: Coast Guard Sexual-Assault Survivors Seek Accountability

For decades, members of the United States Coast Guard have carried out some of the country's most dangerous work—saving lives, securing ports, intercepting traffickers, and responding when others are in distress.

But according to the Coast Guard's own investigation, some cadets who needed protection inside the U.S. Coast Guard Academy were failed by the very institution charged with developing the Service's future leaders.

That investigation was called Operation Fouled Anchor.

What Operation Fouled Anchor found

The Coast Guard Investigative Service opened the investigation in 2014 after an officer disclosed that she had been raped while attending the Academy 17 years earlier. What began as one investigation expanded into a review of historic allegations involving the Academy.

According to the Coast Guard's January 2020 final report, investigators examined 102 reported events, identified 63 potential victims, and investigated allegations involving 43 separate subjects from the 1990–2006 period. The Academy had known about allegations involving 30 of those subjects at or near the time of the alleged offenses. Only five had been referred to the Coast Guard Investigative Service or local law enforcement.

The report described a disturbing historical pattern: serious allegations were sometimes handled through internal administrative proceedings or disenrollment rather than referral for criminal investigation.

In its own conclusion, the Coast Guard found that institutional and Academy reputation had often weighed against initiating criminal investigations and had taken precedence over concern for victims. It also found that Academy leadership had failed to create an environment conducive to reporting, adequately investigate allegations as serious crimes, or consistently provide victims with the support, trust, and care they needed.

Those are not accusations made solely by outside critics. They are findings contained in the Coast Guard's own official report.

The investigation the public did not see

Operation Fouled Anchor was completed in January 2020, but its existence and findings were not publicly disclosed at that time.

A bipartisan Senate inquiry later examined why Congress and the public had not been informed. In a February 2024 letter to the Coast Guard Commandant, Senators Richard Blumenthal and Ron Johnson cited internal material showing that officials had considered the risk of congressional investigations, hearings, and media attention if the matter became public. Operation Fouled Anchor remained outside public view until investigative reporting exposed it in 2023.

For survivors, that delay matters. When an institution controls the reports, personnel files, investigative records, and official narrative, a survivor may not know the full extent of what the institution knew—or whether the same failures affected others—for years or even decades.

Claims that may become federal lawsuits

Beginning in September 2024, former Coast Guard Academy cadets filed claims under the Federal Tort Claims Act, alleging that the Coast Guard failed to take reasonable measures to prevent sexual violence and mishandled or concealed reports when assaults occurred. Additional filings followed.

These actions are frequently called “lawsuits,” but the legal distinction is important: the publicly documented filings are primarily administrative claims, which are generally the required first step before a person may bring an FTCA lawsuit against the federal government. The claims seek compensation for alleged physical and emotional harm and lost professional opportunities. The allegations have not been finally adjudicated in court.

The Coast Guard has said that sexual assault and sexual harassment have no place in the Service, that it will address claims under applicable federal law, and that it has devoted resources to prevention, victim support, and accountability.

The legal claims are about more than monetary damages. They raise a broader question: What responsibility does a military institution have when its own rules, reporting culture, or leadership decisions allegedly leave members vulnerable—and what happens when the documentary truth emerges decades later?

The transparency problem did not end with Fouled Anchor

In January 2026, the U.S. Government Accountability Office reported that the Coast Guard's fiscal year 2022 report to Congress listed 226 incidents of sexual assault and 88 incidents of sexual harassment. GAO found that the report fully included only five of 11 legally required elements, partially included four, and omitted two. It was also approximately one year late.

As of December 2025, the required fiscal year 2023 and 2024 reports had not been issued, according to GAO. The agency recommended that the Coast Guard provide complete reports and issue them on time; the Department of Homeland Security agreed with those recommendations.

This does not mean every report represents a proven offense. It does mean that complete, timely, and accurate reporting remains essential to oversight, accountability, and trust.

Why the complete record matters to Veterans

Military sexual trauma can follow a survivor long after separation from service. The resulting record may be fragmented across service treatment records, personnel files, counseling notes, transfer requests, performance evaluations, civilian medical records, investigative files, and later VA treatment.

Some survivors never reported what happened when it occurred. Fear of retaliation, damage to a career, shame, isolation, or distrust of the reporting system can leave the original event absent from the most obvious records.

The Department of Veterans Affairs recognizes that reality. For an MST-related disability claim, VA may consider service treatment and personnel records, military reporting forms, investigative records, statements from family members or fellow service members, civilian medical records, and indirect evidence of behavioral or occupational changes. VA's MST disability-compensation guidance specifically identifies evidence such as transfer requests, changes in work performance, counseling visits, relationship difficulties, substance-use problems, and other changes following the trauma.

That is why Veterans should obtain and preserve as complete a record as possible. A single document may appear insignificant by itself. Placed in chronological context with other records, it may help establish a pattern that was not recognized—or was never properly documented—at the time.

PBRx.Vet is being designed to help Veterans securely assemble records from different systems, arrange them into a longitudinal history, identify missing periods, and prepare informed questions for accredited representatives and healthcare professionals. It does not decide whether an assault occurred, determine eligibility for benefits, or replace a lawyer, clinician, Veterans Service Organization, or VA adjudicator.

Survivors should not have to carry the burden alone

The courage of survivors made Operation Fouled Anchor impossible to keep hidden forever. Their accounts forced records into the open, prompted congressional oversight, and created a path for others to understand that their experience may not have been isolated.

Accountability begins with listening. It continues with preserving evidence, releasing records, correcting institutional failures, and ensuring that survivors receive care without being forced to prove their worthiness first.

VA provides free treatment for physical and mental health conditions related to military sexual trauma. A Veteran does not need a VA disability rating, does not need to have reported the incident when it occurred, and does not need documentation of the incident to receive MST-related care. Information is available through the VA's military sexual trauma services, and every VA medical center has an MST Coordinator.