    [Senate Hearing 118-239]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]

                                                            S. Hrg. 118-239

                        COAST GUARD ACADEMY WHISTLEBLOWERS:
                      STORIES OF SEXUAL ASSAULT AND HARASSMENT

    =======================================================================

                                    HEARING

                                   BEFORE THE

                    PERMANENT SUBCOMMITTEE ON INVESTIGATIONS

                                     OF THE

                                  COMMITTEE ON
                   HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
                              UNITED STATES SENATE

                        ONE HUNDRED EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS

                                 FIRST SESSION

                                   ----------

                               DECEMBER 12, 2023

                                   ----------

            Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.govinfo.gov

                           Printed for the use of the
            Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

    [GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

                                    __________

                       U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
    54-433                     WASHINGTON : 2025

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

            COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS

                       GARY C. PETERS, Michigan, Chairman
    THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware           RAND PAUL, Kentucky
    MAGGIE HASSAN, New Hampshire         RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin
    KYRSTEN SINEMA, Arizona              JAMES LANKFORD, Oklahoma
    JACKY ROSEN, Nevada                  MITT ROMNEY, Utah
    JON OSSOFF, Georgia                  RICK SCOTT, Florida
    RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, Connecticut      JOSH HAWLEY, Missouri
    LAPHONZA BUTLER, California          ROGER MARSHALL, Kansas

                       David M. Weinberg, Staff Director
               William E. Henderson III, Minority Staff Director
                  Christina N. Salazar, Minority Chief Counsel
                         Laura W. Kilbride, Chief Clerk
                       Ashley A. Gonzalez, Hearing Clerk

                    PERMANENT SUBCOMMITTEE ON INVESTIGATIONS

                          RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, Chairman
    THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware           RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin
    MAGGIE HASSAN, New Hampshire         RICK SCOTT, Florida
    JON OSSOFF, Georgia,                 JOSH HAWLEY, Missouri
    LAPHONZA BUTLER, California          ROGER MARSHALL, Kansas

                       Jennifer N. Gaspar, Staff Director
                     Brian Downey, Minority Staff Director
                          Kate Kielceski, Chief Clerk

                                C O N T E N T S

                                     ------
    Opening statements:
                                                                       Page
        Senator Blumenthal...........................................     1
        Senator Johnson..............................................     4
        Senator Butler...............................................    20
        Senator Hawley...............................................    22
        Senator Hassan...............................................    30
    Prepared statements:
        Senator Blumenthal...........................................    35
        Senator Johnson..............................................    38

                                   WITNESSES
                           Tuesday, December 12, 2023

    Commander Jennifer L. Yount, USCG, Ret. United States Coast Guard
      Academy, Class of 1981.........................................     8
    First Class Cadet Kyra Grace Holmstrup United States Coast Guard
      Academy, Class of 2024.........................................     9
    Caitlin E. Maro, Former Member of United States Coast Guard
      Academy, Class of 2008.........................................    10
    Lieutenant Melissa McCafferty, USCG, Ret. United States Coast
      Guard Academy, Class of 2011...................................    11
    Colonel Lorry M. Fenner, USAF, Ret. Director of Government
      Affairs, Service Women's Action Network........................    13

                         Alphabetical List of Witnesses

    Fenner, Colonel Lorry M.:
        Testimony....................................................    13
        Prepared statement...........................................    74
    Holmstrup, First Class Cadet Kyra Grace:
        Testimony....................................................     9
        Prepared statement...........................................    61
    McCafferty, Lieutenant Melissa:
        Testimony....................................................    11
        Prepared statement...........................................    70
    Maro, Caitlin E.:
        Testimony....................................................    10
        Prepared statement...........................................    67
    Yount, Commander Jennifer L.:
        Testimony....................................................     8
        Prepared statement...........................................    40

                                    APPENDIX

    Senator Blumenthal's charts......................................    81
    Letter from Commander Kimberly Young-McLear, Ph.D................    84
    Letter from Diane M. Bucci, Command Master Chief (retired).......    88
    Letter from David C. Ely, USCG Captain (retired).................    91

       COAST GUARD ACADEMY WHISTLEBLOWERS: STORIES OF SEXUAL ASSAULT AND
                                   HARASSMENT

                                  ----------

                           TUESDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2023

                                       U.S. Senate,
                  Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations,
                        of the Committee on Homeland Security
                                      and Governmental Affairs,
                                                        Washington, DC.
        The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10 a.m., in
    room SD-562, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Richard
    Blumenthal, Chair of the Subcommittee, presiding.
        Present: Senators Blumenthal [presiding], Hassan, Butler,
    Johnson, and Hawley.

               OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR BLUMENTHAL\1\

        Senator Blumenthal. This hearing of the Permanent
    Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI) will come to order.
    Welcome, everyone. Thank you all for being here, my colleagues
    who are here, and most especially the witnesses who have joined
    us. This hearing is about a culture of cover-up. It is a
    culture of cover-up that the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) has
    spawned and sustained for decades. It has discouraged and
    deterred victims and survivors of sexual abuse at the Coast
    Guard Academy from coming forward. It has denied them justice,
    and it has failed to protect them from retaliation and reprisal
    when they have stood up and spoken out. For years, this culture
    enabled sexual misconduct to occur, despite evidence of
    widespread, unaddressed, and egregious violations of basic
    norms, and we want to make sure that there is not only
    transparency but also accountability going forward.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        \1\ The prepared statement of Senator Blumenthal appears in the
    Appendix on page 35.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        This culture has continued to refuse accountability, the
    type of accountability that comes from naming names and holding
    wrongdoers accountable. It is the type of accountability that
    requires full cooperation with this Subcommittee's inquiry,
    which so far the Coast Guard has failed to fully do. As we will
    hear today, it is a culture that has all too often victimized
    survivors twice, first when they are assaulted or harassed, and
    then later when the leaders in command have failed to hold the
    perpetrators fully accountable and it is a culture that has
    fostered fear of coming forward, fear that lives would be
    destroyed, fear that all too often has been proven right.
        This is not just about Fouled Anchor. It is about lost
    anchor. It is about a Coast Guard that has lost its way in
    doing justice for women who are victims and survivors of sexual
    assault. It is about a Coast Guard that has abandoned its moral
    compass and lost its ethical sonar. We are here because the
    Coast Guard has continued this problem, and we know that the
    culture can and must be fixed.
        This past summer, we learned that the Coast Guard failed to
    disclose to Congress a multiyear internal investigation into
    dozens of instances of sexual assault at the Academy that had
    been reported but not adequately investigated or otherwise
    addressed. That investigation, known as Fouled Anchor, looked
    at 102 instances of rape or sexual assault at the Coast Guard
    Academy from the early 1990s through 2006, ultimately
    identifying 43 alleged perpetrators with a total of 63 victims.
    Yet, That investigation, or so-called investigation, failed to
    even scratch the surface.
        The majority of our witnesses here today will talk about
    violations of their rights, sexual assault that occurred
    outside that timeframe, so it was not covered by Operation
    Fouled Anchor (OFA). The investigation found that the Academy
    had previously been aware of allegations against 30 of those 43
    alleged perpetrators, but that only five, only five had been
    reported to law enforcement at the time. The report from this
    investigation concluded that the Academy leadership who oversaw
    these cases did not, and I quote, ``instill a culture
    intolerant of any form of sexual misconduct. They did not
    promote and maintain a climate conducive to reporting incidents
    of sexual assault, and they did not adequately investigate
    alleged offenses as serious criminal matters and hold
    perpetrators appropriately accountable.''
        This Subcommittee opened a bipartisan inquiry soon after
    Operation Fouled Anchor was disclosed. Our inquiry, which is
    ongoing, has already found that Operation Fouled Anchor failed
    to address sexual misconduct in a vast number of cases at the
    Coast Guard Academy. We have heard accounts from numerous
    individuals with disturbing personal gripping, painful stories
    of sexual assault and harassment at the Coast Guard Academy,
    and in the Coast Guard. Those survivors include both men and
    women, and they span nearly five decades of Coast Guard alumni
    and retirees.
        Four of these brave individuals are here with us today, and
    on behalf of myself and all of my colleagues, I want to thank
    each of you for being here. I want to thank each of you for
    your courage and tenacity in coming forward. The stories that
    we are going to hear today show how the Coast Guard Academy
    fostered an environment where assaults and harassment not only
    persisted, but fueled the culture of cover-up where survivors
    who did come forward were not treated with the seriousness and
    respect they deserve. I want to share part of one, just one
    individual story from a former cadet, who is not here today,
    just one of numerous accounts that the Subcommittee has
    received in recent weeks, and we are going to make some of them
    part of this record.
        This woman, who is a constituent, was assaulted twice in
    her first year at the Academy but did not disclose these
    assaults to anyone for decades, including members of her
    family. I am quoting, ``The rumors that existed about other
    girls who reported assaults were awful, and they eventually
    left the service because they were not taken seriously, and in
    some cases, blamed for their assault. I hid the assaults from
    everyone that I knew, including my family and closest
    friends.'' This is a woman who chose the Academy, a woman who
    was committed to public service and chose to serve her country,
    but because of what she experienced, she decided to forego a
    lifelong career in the Coast Guard, and our nation is worse off
    for it.
        The stories that we have heard from survivors, that we are
    going to hear, in fact, from our witnesses today, are echoed by
    the Coast Guard's own data, a 2022 survey. A survey of cadets
    revealed that nearly 30 percent of female cadets experienced
    unwanted sexual conduct and contact since arriving at the
    Academy. That means that for every four female cadets, one or
    more has experienced unwanted sexual contact. That same survey
    found that only 15 percent of female survivors reported their
    assaults, and half of those who did, they experienced
    retaliation. More than half of female cadets surveyed reported
    experiencing sexual harassment in the last year.
        I am encouraged that the Coast Guard is signaling that they
    are beginning to take this problem seriously. The Coast Guard
    recently released the results of a 90-day Accountability and
    Transparency Review (ATR), ordered by the Commandant after
    Operation Fouled Anchor was disclosed. This review includes
    programmatic recommendations aimed at addressing the deeply
    rooted cultural issues within the Coast Guard, and we support
    these efforts. I believe them to be a positive first step, but
    let me be very clear--there is no accountability in that
    report. There is no naming of names. There is no reason given
    for the 3\1/2\-year delay between completion of Operation
    Fouled Anchor and its disclosure to the Congress. That report
    was concealed, hidden, and withheld from the U.S. Congress.
    This 90-day review in no way provides accountability.
        The Coast Guard's, quote, ``Accountability Task Force'' did
    not, in fact, recommend any steps to hold accountable past
    perpetrators or generations of Coast Guard leaders who oversaw
    and enabled that culture of misconduct to buildup that enabled
    the cover-up. Accountability is essential to ensure justice for
    victims and survivors, and prevent it from occurring in the
    future. There is no deterrence without accountability.
    Perpetrators must know that their actions will be punished, and
    that the survivors and victims will be protected.
        The Coast Guard also has to do more to fully cooperate with
    this Subcommittee's investigation, and produce documents that
    we have requested in order to reveal the full scope of the
    culture of cover-up that has existed on their watch. While we
    are encouraged that the Coast Guard has produced some records,
    we have yet to receive a single internal email related to the
    decision of whether or not to disclose the report on Operation
    Fouled Anchor--not one internal email disclosed so far. These
    critical documents must be provided without further delay.
        Let me just say finally, while this hearing is primarily
    focused on the Coast Guard, and specifically the Academy, we
    know that these issues are not limited to the Coast Guard or to
    the Coast Guard Academy. The culture of cover-up has inevitably
    bled from the ranks of the Academy to the Coast Guard itself.
    These problems persist in other military services, and we need
    to be determined to rid all of our military of sexual assault
    and harassment.
        The Coast Guard has a long and storied history of service
    to our Nation. It is vital to our domestic safety and national
    defense. I have been a strong supporter of the Coast Guard, a
    strong supporter of the Academy, a strong supporter of a museum
    that will tell the story of the Coast Guard. But the strongest
    supporters of the Coast Guard ought to be the most determined
    to rid it of this scorching scourge, and I hope that this
    hearing and the others that will follow it in our investigation
    will help in that effort. I will turn to the Ranking Member.

                  OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR JOHNSON

        Senator Johnson. Thank you, Mr. Chair. There is really not
    much more I can add than what you have already in said in terms
    of laying out the purpose of this hearing. It is beyond
    unfortunate that we even have to have this hearing, but this
    hearing is imperative. I will just ask that my own opening
    statement just be entered into the record.\1\
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        \1\ The prepared statement of Senator Johnson appears in the
    Appendix on page 38.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        Senator Blumenthal. Without objection.
        Senator Johnson. Reading through the testimony, going
    through the briefing here, it is outrageous what you have had
    to endure. I appreciate your courage coming forward. It is an
    obvious lack of leadership. The culture of cover-up is
    pervasive. To have allowed this to continue for decades shows
    the extent of the problem. This Committee is not going to solve
    the problem. It has to be solved within the services
    themselves, and within government agencies. This is the
    Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation. We should be the
    premier investigatory and oversight body of the U.S. Senate. I
    agree with Senator Blumenthal when he said that the Coast Guard
    needs to do more to cooperate.
        We have gotten some records in response to a joint letter
    that we sent. I am glad you mentioned the fact that we have not
    yet got one email talking about the internal discussion of why
    they decided to withhold the results of the Fouled Anchor
    report for 3\1/2\ years. It was not, by the way, their decision
    after 3\1/2\ years to finally give that to Congress.
    Fortunately, we had Cable News Network (CNN), a news
    organization that was inquisitive enough to do investigative
    reporting and reveal this. They did not come clean on their
    own. This was exposed and they then came clean prior to that
    public disclosure.
        What I am hoping you will do, Mr. Chair, is if they do not
    respond on time--and there is no reason they cannot start a
    rolling production of documents. I mean this is not that hard,
    to go into emails, do searches, and start producing some of
    these documents in terms of what was the communication that
    resulted in this 3\1/2\-year cover-up? I guess what I am saying
    is, if they do not produce those documents, or at least begin
    the production of those critical emails on the date we have
    given them, I want, and I will support you in issuing a
    subpoena. I hope we do that.
        Senator Blumenthal. We will certainly take that action if
    necessary.
        Senator Johnson. But I would like to take this moment--I do
    not get a whole lot of opportunities here--to expand a little
    bit, because you talked about the culture of cover-up, and that
    is not just in the Coast Guard. It is also within the
    Department of Defense (DOD), and not just on these issues, on a
    host of issues. It is also in the Department of Homeland
    Security (DHS). It is throughout Federal agencies. Mr. Chair, I
    have written you a couple of pretty lengthy letters over the
    weekend. I am hoping you have had a chance to review that. I
    just want to talk to those issues.
        One of the letters is requesting you issue subpoenas to the
    Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on the fact that
    they have not been responsive, certainly to my oversight, my
    investigation requests, as relates to the cover-up of the
    creation of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). For
    example, Anthony Fauci's funding of the Wuhan lab. In
    particular, through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
    requests, HHS has provided something like 4,000 pages to a FOIA
    request--not to Congress, to a FOIA request--of Anthony Fauci,
    Francis Collins, other people's emails. They are heavily
    redacted. Congress is not subject to those redactions.
        We know the 4,000 pages exist. As an accommodation to HHS,
    we said, well, we are interested in these 400 pages. We want to
    see those unredacted. They did not give them to us. What they
    did allow is over the course of many months, they have allowed
    us to go into a secure room, and they provided those documents
    unredacted. We could not take copies; we could take notes.
    Again, we asked for 400 pages; we have been able to review 350.
    We are down to the last 50 pages. This has been over a year.
    This is what they have produced to us so far. Now I do not know
    about you, but this makes me pretty curious about what HHS is
    covering up in emails between Anthony Fauci as it relates to
    his funding of the Wuhan lab. I am asking you to issue a
    subpoena to HHS to get these and other documents I have
    requested on the gain-of-function research and the cover-up of
    HHS in terms of their funding of it.
        The other point I want to make, another issue that has been
    near and dear to my heart is vaccines and the lack of
    transparency of the agencies related to vaccine injuries, their
    analysis of their Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System
    (VAERS). They had what they called a standard operating
    procedure (SOP); they were going to do things called
    proportional reporting ratios, or empirical Bayesian analyses.
    They talked about this openly before they got the emergency use
    authorization on the vaccines. They have on occasion said they
    did not do it. Then they have admitted they have done it. I
    have been now for a couple of years just asking them to give me
    their own analysis of what they are seeing in terms of safety
    signals from their VAERS system. Now this is information the
    public has a right to know. We fund these agencies. They have
    these surveillance systems on an emergency use authorized
    vaccine that the American people, in order to have informed
    consent to actually take the vaccines, ought to know.
        A quick few little figures here. To date, worldwide deaths
    reported in the VAERS system associated with the COVID vaccine
    were up to 36,726 deaths worldwide. What is notable about that
    is 8,976, about 24 percent of those deaths, are occurring at a
    zero, one in two following vaccination. Now I realize VAERS
    does not prove causation, but that sure is a correlation that
    concerns me. I for the life of me cannot understand why it is
    not concerning the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the
    Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
        The other problem with VAERS is it generally dramatically
    understates the number of adverse events. Now oftentimes I get
    the pushback that, we have given billions of these doses, so of
    course, and any medical intervention is going to have problems.
    There is risks associated with everything. If you take a look
    at deaths per million dose--and I have done that calculation--
    it is not that easy, because we do not have doses of flu. But
    to compare it to flu vaccine--there have been 25.5 deaths per
    million doses of the COVID vaccine. If you compare that to the
    flu vaccine, assuming 70 percent of the distributed vaccines
    are actually injected, there is .46 deaths per million doses.
    That is a 55-fold increase deaths per million doses, with the
    COVID vaccine versus the flu vaccine--55-fold increase. This
    ought to concern the FDA and the CDC.
        I have written close to 60 oversight letters to Federal
    health agencies on things. I have gotten virtually no response
    on any of these things. It is about time we start subpoenaing
    them, at a minimum, for their analysis of the VAERS system and
    what the VAERS system is telling them. Again, I am asking you
    to use this Subcommittee, again the premier oversight
    investigatory committee of the U.S. Senate, to start getting
    these Federal health agencies to be transparent, because there
    is a culture of cover-up, not only in the Coast Guard, but
    throughout the Federal Government, and unfortunately we have
    allowed our oversight ability and capabilities to atrophy over
    time, because the Federal agencies realize we just do not
    enforce our constitutional authority to do so.
        Again, switching back to this hearing, I truly appreciate
    you coming forward, telling your stories. They are hard to
    read, and they will be hard to listen to, but they are
    important stories for the American people to hear the truth,
    because the only way there is going to be accountability here
    is through exposure of the truth, and the only way you get
    exposure of the truth is if we get these documents and these
    agencies stop covering up. Again, thank you for appearing here,
    and I am not looking forward to the testimony, because I have
    read it, OK? It is going to be hard to listen to. You should
    not have had to endure this, but I appreciate you coming
    forward, and we will listen to your testimony.
        Senator Blumenthal. Thanks for your comment, Senator
    Johnson. As you and I have discussed--and I have read your
    letters from the weekend--we want to work with you, and we can
    discuss our concerns a little bit later. I am going to
    introduce the witnesses; then we will swear you in and hear
    your testimony. There will be questions afterward, I think
    probably 7-minute rounds.
        We are very fortunate to have with us first Commander
    Jennifer Yount. Commander Yount graduated from the Coast Guard
    Academy in 1981, part of the second class of women to graduate
    from the Academy. Commander Yount served in the Coast Guard for
    more than 20 years, where she served in a variety of positions,
    including as the second woman to command a United States
    commandant--combatant, I should say. Since retirement,
    Commander Yount has held leadership positions in higher
    education and served as a member of the Advisory Board on Women
    in the Coast Guard. Commander Yount is also a leader of
    Coasties Thriving Together, an independent action team of
    volunteer Coast Guard veterans serving survivors of military
    sexual and physical trauma. Today, Commander Yount will share
    her personal experiences at the Coast Guard Academy and the
    Coast Guard.
        Mrs. Caitlin E. Maro. Caitlin Maro is a former member of
    the Coast Guard Academy Class of 2008. She was honorably
    discharged from the Coast Guard in 2005 after completing one
    semester. She graduated from Rowan University with a Bachelor
    of Art (BA) in political science in 2009, and has completed
    coursework toward a master's in American history from Rutgers
    University. During her studies, she served as an intern in the
    House of Representatives and with the Senate Commerce
    Committee. Mrs. Maro was born in Philadelphia, raised in New
    Jersey, and now lives in western Tennessee with her husband and
    children.
        Lieutenant Melissa McCafferty. Lieutenant McCafferty is a
    2011 graduate of the Coast Guard Academy. She served as
    Director of Operations and Deputy Director of Operations in the
    Coast Guard's response to Hurricanes Irma, Maria, and Harvey.
    She is a Tillman and Truman Scholar. She received a master's in
    applied economics from Johns Hopkins University, and is a 2023
    graduate of Georgetown University Law Center. Lieutenant
    McCafferty is currently in private practice in Washington, DC,
    and she will share her personal experiences as well.
        Cadet Holmstrup is a member of the Coast Guard Academy
    Class of 2024. For the past 2 years, she has served as the
    president of Cadets Against Sexual Assault (CASA), a student-
    run organization that provides resources for her peers who have
    experienced sexual assault, and advocates for improved policies
    and procedures.
        Colonel Lorry Fenner, United States Air Force (USAF),
    Retired. Colonel Fenner is the Director of Government Relations
    at the Service Women's Action Network (SWAN), an organization
    advocating for the needs of over 350,000 servicewomen and two
    million women veterans in the United States. Colonel Fenner
    served in the United States Air Force for 26 years, and she
    commanded units at various levels. After retiring, she worked
    on Capitol Hill, led research teams, published and edited work
    on women and minorities in the military. Colonel Fenner holds a
    Ph.D. and a master's degree in history from the University of
    Michigan, and a master's in national security strategy from the
    National War College. Her expertise will help us understand how
    military culture policies in the Coast Guard and elsewhere can
    foster a culture of cover-up that is tolerant of sexual assault
    and harassment.
        If you would please rise and raise your right hand, I will
    swear you in. Do you swear that the testimony that you will
    give today before this Committee is the truth, the whole truth,
    and nothing but the truth, so help you, God?
        All Witnesses. I do.
        Thank you. Why do we not go left to right. If you would
    please begin.

    TESTIMONY OF COMMANDER JENNIFER L. YOUNT,\1\ USCG, RET. UNITED
               STATES COAST GUARD ACADEMY, CLASS OF 1981

        Commander Yount. Yes, sir. Good morning, Senator
    Blumenthal, Ranking Member Johnson, and distinguished Members
    of the Subcommittee. I entered the Coast Guard Academy as the
    second class of women in 1977, and graduated in 1981. I then
    had a 20-year career with the Coast Guard and retired as the
    Commanding Officer of the Cutter Dauntless. Afterwards, I
    became a maritime professor. Today, I am a leadership coach,
    consultant, and trainer.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        \1\ The prepared statement of Commander Yount appears in the
    Appendix on page 40.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        I am testifying because I love the Academy and the Coast
    Guard. I cherish and appreciate the training, education, and
    lifetime of opportunities the Academy and the Coast Guard
    provided me. I bleed Coast Guard blue. I am not testifying to
    damage the Coast Guard or the Academy; I am doing so to make it
    better.
        My first assault while in the Coast Guard's service
    happened in the spring of 1978, during an Academy tradition
    known as Billet Night. Two first-class cadets broke down my
    roommate's and my locked door, entered our room, and jumped
    onto our beds on top of us. We were paralyzed with fear. At
    some point, and for whatever reason, the cadet on top of me got
    up. I am not sure why. He then pulled his classmate off my
    roommate and they both left us, closing the door behind them.
    Several days later, the damage to the door was noticed by the
    inspecting officer. Without any questions about how the door
    was damaged, my roommate and I were given demerits for
    destruction of government property. I did not report this
    assault, because I did not believe my experience would be taken
    seriously. How could I, when I, not my attacker, received
    punishment after the assault.
        Unfortunately, this was not my only experience with sexual
    misconduct while in the Coast Guard. After graduation, I faced
    sexual harassment on two separate ships, the emotional and
    mental consequences of which almost cost me my career.
    Throughout my 20-year career, the service has repeatedly
    attempted to assure me that it has improved its systems and
    policies to better protect its own. However, our testimony, the
    Operation Fouled Anchor report, and the stories you have heard
    throughout the years all indicate that the Coast Guard has
    simply not done enough.
        Sitting in front of me is a stack of studies and reports
    beginning with a 2016 report to Congress, and ending with
    Admiral Fagan's directed actions. It has not been enough. The
    world's greatest Coast Guard let down all the women and men who
    have survived sexual military assault and trauma for the past
    47 years, and 50 years since women first entered the service.
    This status quo can no longer continue.
        My written testimony includes several recommendations. They
    range from limiting alcohol consumption at the Academy to
    improving veteran record management so that Coast Guard
    survivors can receive disability compensation. They include
    improvements to the Academy's Board of Trustees, and improved
    Academy dormitory supervision. However, the recommendation that
    means the most to me is accountability. Throughout the
    Operation Fouled Anchor fallout, Coast Guard leadership has
    insisted on focusing on the future. As a member of the Class of
    1981, I say until the Coast Guard acknowledges the breadth and
    seriousness of what has happened, which has been a systemic
    problem that has impacted the very culture of the institution,
    we cannot move forward and take the steps necessary to effect
    meaningful change. A cultural transformation of the Academy and
    the Coast Guard must occur so that surviving is no longer the
    norm, and thriving is. Thank you.
        Senator Blumenthal. Thank you very much, Commander Yount.
    First-Class Cadet Holmstrup.

    TESTIMONY OF FIRST CLASS CADET KYRA GRACE HOLMSTRUP,\1\ UNITED
               STATES COAST GUARD ACADEMY, CLASS OF 2024

        Cadet Holmstrup. Good morning, Chair Blumenthal, Ranking
    Member Johnson, and Members of the Committee. Thank you for the
    opportunity for me to speak publicly today. I am First-Class
    Cadet Kyra Holmstrup, a senior at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy
    and president of the Cadets Against Sexual Assault. While I
    respect and empathize with my fellow panelists here today, I
    want to be clear that their statements are their own, and I do
    not necessarily endorse all that they have to say. These are
    also my views and not the views of the Coast Guard or the Coast
    Guard Academy. I hope to share my story today to exemplify the
    progress that our Academy still must make, and I hope to
    humanize the many statistics on sexual assault we have become
    all too comfortable hearing. It has been a privilege to attend
    the Coast Guard Academy, and I am grateful to all those along
    the way who have helped me find my place within the Academy and
    the Coast Guard.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        \1\ The prepared statement of Cadet Holmstrup appears in the
    Appendix on page 61.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        My story begins my second week as a cadet, during my
    freshman year. I had gotten close to a classmate in the same
    training platoon during Swab Summer. What I thought was an
    innocent ice cream date on campus turned into a sexual assault
    that has haunted me ever since. We are always told that you
    just have to say 'no,' but 'no' to him was an invitation to try
    again. I was 19. What I did not know then was that after making
    an unrestricted report out of fear for my safety, I would be
    thrown into the darkest year of my life. The process of my case
    was plagued by unenforced No Contact Orders (NCOs), a
    disconnect between myself and my Special Victims' Counsel, and
    false hope of the perpetrator being removed from campus.
        My classmates stopped talking to me as I spiraled into a
    deep depression. We always talk about how trauma stems from the
    assault, but the reporting system continues to re-victimize,
    and causes trauma of its own. From my time as the president of
    Cadets Against Sexual Assault, I have seen the reporting
    process continue to revictimize those who courageously come
    forward, and force others to hide in the shadows until
    graduation.
        With our new Coast Guard Academy leadership, there has been
    some progress made, but without your help, the Academy cannot
    continue to progress within the bounds that have been set by
    Congress. This Committee may not be able to solve sexual
    assault, but you can solve some of the barriers that we face.
    Today, I come with recommendations on how together, we can
    better the reporting system for cadets.
        One, cadets who are kicked out on a Non-Judicial Punishment
    for assault or sexual harassment should not be allowed to
    enlist in any service. Two, No Contact Orders must be enforced
    on campus, through cadet regulations or administrative means,
    for the safety of all members involved. Three, we must
    readdress Section 539 of the National Defense Authorization Act
    (NDAA) of 2021 that covered the separation of alleged victims
    and alleged perpetrators, with stakeholders and cadets from the
    U.S. Coast Guard Academy, in order to better regulate our
    unique environment. Four, Special Victims' Counsels (SVCs) must
    be afforded the opportunity to review the entirety of the case
    file for their clients in order to give them the best counsel.
    Furthermore, SVCs should not be allowed to be first-year
    lawyers, and must have experience in a different realm of the
    Coast Guard before working with victims. And five, the U.S.
    Coast Guard Academy must adopt the Safe-To-Report Policy on
    collateral misconduct that each service academy follows.
        Despite seeing the worst of the Coast Guard, I have also
    been lucky enough to experience the Coast Guard at its best
    through mentors, friends, and classmates. Truly, I am excited
    for the future Coast Guard that my class will serve in come
    May. Thank you.
        Senator Blumenthal. Thank you very, very much. Mrs. Maro.

    TESTIMONY OF CAITLIN E. MARO,\1\ FORMER MEMBER OF UNITED STATES
                   COAST GUARD ACADEMY, CLASS OF 2008

        Ms. Maro. Good morning, Senator Blumenthal, Ranking Member
    Johnson, and distinguished Members of this Subcommittee. I want
    to thank you personally, Senator Blumenthal, for inviting me
    here today. I have been telling my story publicly for 17 years
    now, and I want to thank you for your interest in this critical
    issue. I told my story to your colleagues over in the U.S.
    House of Representatives back in 2006, and I am praying that
    today is the day that Congress takes action.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        \1\ The prepared statement of Mrs. Maro appears in the Appendix on
    page 67.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        I entered the Academy in June 2004, but had no choice but
    to leave after one semester of study as my physical safety was
    at stake. The open secret that you are now privy to is that the
    Academy and the Coast Guard at large is fraught with cronyism,
    power addicts, and abusers. My written testimony contains the
    details of my experience while a freshman at the Academy, but
    the short of my story is that I was groped several times,
    sometimes with 30 laughing witnesses, and sexually harassed on
    a daily basis. The environment was so consuming that I would
    take my school assignments down to the baseball dugouts, in the
    dark, with a flashlight. After I reluctantly reported my
    assaults, I was simply asked by my company commander, ``Is this
    worth investigating?'' I told him, ``I don't know.'' It was
    then that the matter was dropped.
        In a later meeting, after an investigation was forced, the
    same company commander admitted that he did not start an
    investigation because, he ``figured that it happened on a date.
    You do have blonde hair, and you wear makeup.'' Having no one
    to turn to and no one to help me, I decided to voluntarily
    resign in February 2005, after it became apparent that my
    career in the Coast Guard was over before it even began. My
    reputation was destroyed, and the trust that existed between me
    and my shipmates was gone.
        Transparency and accountability in the U.S. Coast Guard and
    the Academy has never existed, and still does not exist today.
    I am here to tell you that that must change. To start,
    Operation Fouled Anchor needs to be made public. Accountability
    cannot happen until there is transparency. My personal FOIA
    request for the Operation Fouled Anchor report was denied over
    the summer. It was then that I went directly to the Coast Guard
    Academy itself for my own personal records. The current
    Assistant Commandant of Cadets, Commander Aaron Casavant, told
    me to submit a FOIA request for my personal documentation
    regarding my sexual assault. That is something that I am
    entitled to under the Privacy Act of 1974. Imagine that, a FOIA
    request for my own documents. I wonder what they are hiding in
    there?
        As for accountability, the highest-ranking member of the
    Coast Guard, Admiral Linda Fagan, told your colleagues in the
    Commerce Committee in July that all victims that were listed in
    the Fouled Anchor report were notified. I am here to tell you
    that that is a lie. I was never contacted by the Coast Guard. I
    found out about my inclusion in Operation Fouled Anchor from a
    writer at CNN, in June 2023. I am the great-great-great-
    granddaughter of a drummer that led Union soldiers into battle
    at both Antietam and Gettysburg. I am the great-great-
    granddaughter of a Navy sailor that died on the Battleship
    Maine in Havana Harbor. There were others that served on both
    fronts, in both World Wars. I wanted to serve my country as
    they did. Admiral Fagan also told your colleagues that in all
    cases in which the Coast Guard had jurisdiction, that action
    was taken on perpetrators. Senators, my main perpetrator is
    currently a lieutenant commander in the Coast Guard. He is
    thriving in a career that I had hoped for. Thank you.
        Senator Blumenthal. Thank you very much, Mrs. Maro.
    Lieutenant McCafferty.

       TESTIMONY OF LIEUTENANT MELISSA MCCAFFERTY,\1\ USCG, RET.
            UNITED STATES COAST GUARD ACADEMY, CLASS OF 2011

        Lieutenant McCafferty. Senator Blumenthal, Ranking Member
    Johnson, and Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for the
    opportunity to speak with you today. My name is Melissa
    McCafferty, and I am a retired lieutenant in the United States
    Coast Guard. At the foot of the Coast Guard Academy barracks is
    a monument with these words inscribed: Honor. Respect. Devotion
    to Duty. On its best days, many Coast Guard members live and
    breathe these core values. Unfortunately, there are many who do
    not.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        \1\ The prepared statement of Lieutenant McCafferty appears in the
    Appendix on page 70.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        While a freshman at the Academy, I experienced my first
    sexual assault. I was befriended by an upper-class male cadet,
    who invited me to go with him to New York City. Having grown up
    in a small village in Michigan, I had never been to the Big
    Apple, so I agreed. He told me that he had booked separate
    hotel rooms, but when I arrived, I discovered only one. It was
    then that I realized this person was not my friend. Over the
    course of 3 days, he repeatedly raped me in that room.
        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. My fears were not unfounded--I later witnessed the
    restriction of a classmate who was brave enough to report a
    rape. To add insult to injury, senior leaders at the Academy
    permitted her rapist to graduate and to receive his commission.
    To my knowledge, he is still serving today.
        My second sexual assault occurred during my third year at
    the Academy. I was asleep in my room when an intoxicated
    classmate broke in, climbed into my bed, and began undoing his
    shorts. Thankfully, I was able to stop him. I escorted my
    classmate to his room, put him to bed, and never spoke of the
    incident.
        My experiences are not isolated events. There are hundreds
    of similar stories within the Academy and throughout the fleet,
    involving officers and enlisted members alike. As a result,
    there exists a corrosive pattern of sexual assault, harassment,
    abuse, bullying, intimidation, and retaliation. This is
    insidious, this is pervasive, and this is continuing to this
    day. Throughout my career, I have personally experienced and
    observed behavior that leads me to this tragic conclusion--
    there is an incredibly strong correlation between our abusive
    culture and the continued failure by Coast Guard senior leaders
    to hold themselves and others accountable for abhorrent, and at
    times criminal, behavior.
        What's worse, I have witnessed the harassment, bullying,
    and retaliation against Coast Guard members who have shown the
    integrity to speak up. After exercising integrity, they are
    often forced out of the organization. For some, including
    myself, when the abuse becomes so unrelenting, so omnipresent,
    and so insufferable, we seek relief in suicide. I survived my
    attempt. Tragically, many, many of my shipmates did not.
        My purpose today is to bear witness to these problems
    through my own experiences and observations, and to lend my
    voice to those who have been silenced. It is an abject failure
    of integrity that senior leaders have concealed, condoned, and
    otherwise enabled this behavior to thrive. It is an abject
    failure of leadership that they have refused to address the
    systemic nature of this abuse. It is an absolute abject failure
    of character that they have continued to prioritize loyalty to
    themselves and to each other over that of our organization and
    our people. Through their continued failure to hold
    perpetrators accountable for their actions, senior leaders have
    abdicated their authority under the Uniform Code of Military
    Justice (UCMJ). They have failed to uphold Congressional and
    statutory mandates, and they have violated their oaths of
    office.
        I have repeatedly witnessed senior leaders dismiss
    substantiated reports of harassment, assault, abuse, and
    retaliation in order to shield their fellow officers and
    friends from any form of discipline. As evidence of this, I
    direct your attention to the several failed attempts by senior
    leaders to bury these damaging reports. Perhaps the most
    visible example of this failure is the well-documented case of
    former Academy department head Glenn Sulmasy. As documented in
    the news, not only did senior leaders deliberately overturn
    prosecutorial recommendations from lawyers, they also knowingly
    concealed his behavior and falsely attested to his character by
    writing him a letter of recommendation. These actions enabled
    Sulmasy, a known sexual predator, to attain positions at two
    civilian colleges, first as a provost, and then as a president.
    Unfortunately, I count as one of his many victims.
        In refusing to acknowledge and address the past, senior
    leaders have implicitly condemned the future. Make no mistake--
    I love this organization. I have spent half of my life
    fulfilling its missions, and working both for and with its
    people. My testimony today brings me no joy. That said, joy
    shall never eclipse integrity. While good people do exist in
    our organization, they are almost always outranked and
    overruled by the bad. In fulfilling our charge to protect
    humanity and to defend the Nation, Coast Guard senior leaders
    have failed to protect us against the worst of all enemies--
    ourselves. Thank you.
        Senator Blumenthal. Thank you, Lieutenant McCafferty.
    Colonel Fenner.

    TESTIMONY OF COLONEL LORRY FENNER,\1\ UNITED STATES AIR FORCE,
                                RETIRED

        Colonel Fenner. Good morning, Senator Blumenthal, Senator
    Johnson, Senator Butler. Thank you for inviting SWAN to speak
    with you today. As you mentioned, we represent very, very many
    active-duty women and women veterans, especially in working
    against sexual assault and for culture change. As you
    mentioned, I served in the Air Force, mostly in intelligence,
    but I taught two tours at the Air Force Academy as well. And my
    PhD is in military history, but part of my focus was on women
    in the military over time.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        \1\ The prepared statement of Colonel Fenner appears in the
    Appendix on page 74.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        I am honored to be sitting here with these women--I am OK.
    It is unbelievable, but it is so important that you have them
    here today, because it emphasizes that this is not about
    esoteric policy and legislation. It is about real people,
    people who we care about and who are the foundation of the
    mission of safety and national security for our people.
        For those of us who are older, this is like Groundhog Day.
    Unfortunately, something happens. Fortunately, it might come to
    our attention. Then we have a lot of energy, policy,
    legislation, and then we do what we call fire and forget. We
    think we have solved a problem, but as you have pointed out,
    and as these ladies have pointed out, these are persistent
    cultural problems that will continue. They will continue to
    emerge in the public eye. Because it is not in the news every
    day does not mean it is not happening every day. So us doing
    the same thing over and over again in that stack of reports is
    not going to solve the problem. What is missing? My longer
    testimony has some other suggestions, but what we can say is
    what you have started here today, and I am glad to hear that
    you are going to continue--sustained and intense oversight. Do
    not fire and forget. With the Coast Guard, with the
    complexities of authorities and responsibilities, this will be
    a whole of government, whole of Congress attempt at oversight,
    between committees and on both sides of Capitol Hill. DHS and
    DOD must work together. Sometimes they do, and inexplicably,
    sometimes they do not. It has to be from top to bottom, and I
    am so glad the new leadership at the Coast Guard Academy is
    reenergizing the Board of Visitors.
        Title 14, Section 701 about cooperation can be readdressed,
    and Military Service Organizations (MSO) and Veterans Service
    Organizations (VSO) stand by to help you, but this must be a
    combined effort at oversight. Admiral Fagan asked for
    resources. Again, sometimes the services work together, and
    sometimes they are not. They should work together in military
    justice reform in the Offices of Special Trial Counsel (OSTC)
    and SVP establishment, and the oversight that the Sexual
    Assault Prevention and Response Office (SAPROs) are doing can
    be combined. The Coast Guard Academy, and actually the Merchant
    Marine Academy, should be included in DOD SAPRO's every 2-year
    report, and the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the
    Services (DACOWITS) does entertain the Coast Guard sometimes,
    but in their visits, they do not go to the Coast Guard Academy.
    That should be started.
        Independent investigations are very important. Reporting
    and accountability are a circular problem. If there is not
    public naming and shaming, it will not come about. It is just
    about the perpetrators; as everyone has said, it is about the
    leaders. We must force ourselves into anticipatory leadership.
    You cannot just walk into a unit and be ignorant and be shocked
    that gambling is going on there. Don't be shocked. Don't wait
    until it hits you in the face. Don't do one more commander's
    call where you talk about zero tolerance. Don't force one more
    PowerPoint set of slides for training on people. We must be
    held accountable, and that will encourage reporting. If you
    don't have accountability, you don't have reporting. If you do
    not have reporting, you do not have accountability.
        I would then also advocate for the Veteran Service
    Administration (VA) to do specific outreach. They are getting
    better at it. It is not perfect, it needs work, but specific
    outreach to Coast Guard Academy attendees and graduates from
    the 1970s on. Do that outreach that the Investigative Service
    said that it did but did not reach everybody. Make sure those
    women know what the VA offers now that the evidentiary
    standards for Military Sexual Trauma (MST) have changed, and
    that their claims will be more easily processed, and that they
    should take advantage of what those Veterans Service
    Organizations offer to help them with those claims. Please do
    not fire and forget this time. Thank you.
        Senator Blumenthal. Thank you, Colonel Fenner. We are going
    to begin now with questions, but before we do, I just want to
    say this testimony is some of the most powerful I have heard in
    my entire term in the U.S. Senate, and I have heard a lot of
    powerful testimony. It is horrifying and heartbreaking, but it
    is also uplifting because of your courage, your strength and
    tenacity, and your determination to serve our country by
    bringing to light this problem, to improve a service that you
    love and that you have given your all to make better. You are
    right, Colonel Fenner; it is about real people. It is about
    real women. There is a saying, the cover-up is worse than the
    crime. The crime here was absolutely horrific, but the climate
    of cover-up encourages more of the crime.
        I want to begin, Cadet Holmstrup, by asking you, do these
    problems persist? You are currently a cadet, first-class cadet
    at the Coast Guard, in your senior year. Do these problems
    persist?
        Cadet Holmstrup. Thank you, Senator, for that question.
    Cover-up, in my opinion, does not exist at the Coast Guard
    Academy with our current leadership. I think if there is time
    or a place for change within the Coast Guard and Coast Guard
    Academy, it is now. They have been very active with speaking
    with CASA, which is Cadets Against Sexual assault, and I am
    very optimistic for the future. High-schoolers that are coming
    into the Coast Guard Academy, Senator.
        Senator Blumenthal. When you say that they are active, is
    it matched by action? Are their good intentions matched by
    action that meets the problem?
        Cadet Holmstrup. Senator, I do not believe that there is
    any person within the Coast Guard Academy that believes that
    sexual assault is not a pervasive issue. In my written
    testimony that I submitted, I talked about how our assistant
    superintendent was able to secure a $100,000 endowment for our
    Sexual Assault Prevention Response and Recovery (SAPRR) office,
    and $40,000 of that was given or is going to CASA primarily. I
    do believe that there is some action, but like I will talk
    about today, there are some things that we need you to help
    with, some of the barriers that we really face and that we
    struggle with at the Academy.
        Senator Blumenthal. We should not depend on news
    organizations to report what is going on at the Coast Guard
    Academy, or the Coast Guard. We learned about the Fouled Anchor
    report only because CNN found out about it, reported on it, and
    has continued to report and uncover facts. I think the current
    leadership may have good intentions, but they are only going
    part of the way. The 90-day review does not name names. It does
    not achieve accountability, which every one of you have said is
    vital. What horrifies me is not only what happened to each of
    you, but also the fact that your attackers, some of them are
    still serving in positions of extraordinary responsibility and
    command.
        Let me ask Commander Yount, what was your reaction to the
    disclosure of Fouled Anchor, and what did it tell you about the
    Academy, and what was your reaction to the 90-day review,
    Accountability and Transparency Review?
        Commander Yount. I cannot say in public what my initial
    reaction was, sir. [Laughter.]
        A little too salty, with all due respect. I was very angry.
    I could not believe it, quite frankly. I had hoped for much
    more from my Coast Guard after all these years. Maybe I had
    prayed for much more from my Coast Guard after all these years.
    To find out that, one, it was still true, but even worse, that
    they then covered it up was just absolutely the worst, and
    became extremely angry and then even more frustrated. Then a
    group of us older, grayer-haired veterans got together and
    built a coalition to start trying to fight the problem. That
    would be how the reaction was.
        In seeing the report, you can see that I have this stack of
    reports here; if I could just talk about that. I am a little
    bit of a geek sometimes with some of this stuff, so I sort of
    carry some of these things around, which gosh knows why I do
    this. But we can go back to a 2016 report, which was by Admiral
    Zukunft, the commandant then, talks about a culture of respect
    and that we have to relook at our core values. We can talk
    about the Diversity Report done by then-Commandant Schultz,
    talks about a culture of respect and needing to look at the
    core values. Oh, yes, I forgot to talk about this other hidden
    report. That is that Culture of Respect Report from 2015, which
    was also covered up.
        Interestingly enough, that report was covered up, that was
    just released in conjunction with the Accountability and
    Transparency Report, the task force was actually put together
    with the intent to look at sexual assault training to address
    respect issues and to improve our culture. That was its
    purpose, ironically, and that was looked at from August 2011 to
    March 2012. The report was issued in April 2015, and that was
    hidden until the release of our report with the Accountability
    and Transparency Report.
        When I look at this report and I look at all these other
    reports, I say to you, I do not believe it. What is different
    with this report than any of these other reports that have been
    done for the last many years, sir?
        Senator Blumenthal. There is no shortage of reports. It is
    a shortage of action.
        Commander Yount. Yes, sir.
        Senator Blumenthal. Let me ask you, Lieutenant McCafferty,
    you described that trip to New York that you took with a fellow
    cadet. One factor that impacts a cadet's decision to report or
    not to report is the fear of being punished for collateral
    misconduct, whether it is drinking or taking a trip with
    another cadet. Was that a fear among your fellow cadets in
    deciding not to report? I will ask the same question of others
    who are here.
        Lieutenant McCafferty Thank you for that question, Senator.
    Yes, that was absolutely a fear of mine. I had knowingly gone
    to New York City with an upper-class cadet, and we have very
    strict fraternization rules. I was aware of that and I take
    responsibility, and for years I actually blamed myself for what
    happened because I made that decision. In terms of the culture,
    I had repeatedly over the years, my 4 years at the Academy,
    seen countless cadets penalized for minor infractions, I would
    argue minor infractions, that ultimately led to a sexual
    assault or rape.
        I have witnessed male cadets, one of whom was date-raped,
    found in a basement completely naked. No one was ever held
    accountable, and he was restricted from imbibing alcohol.
    Another classmate was restricted, after reporting a rape, for
    drinking alcohol. Another classmate never reported a rape,
    because she, too, drank alcohol. The focus and the priorities
    belie logic here. Like you do not have to be a scientist to
    know that when a rape occurs, you do not blame the person for
    ingesting alcohol, no matter what the amount. In my case, even
    though I went to New York City, I was stone-cold sober. I had
    nothing to drink, but yet the fear they instill in us, and the
    ability to skate on any level of accountability, is
    breathtaking. They will use whatever means they can to downplay
    the action, and they will penalize the victim who speaks up
    with the courage and integrity to speak the truth.
        Having worked for the commandant myself, I have worked in
    the front office. I have worked for these officers. I have seen
    these senior leaders in action. This culture is not isolated to
    the Academy. When I say senior leaders, I use those words
    deliberately. I use those words very precisely, because these
    senior leaders currently, and those who have since been
    honorably retired or quietly asked to resign, continue in this
    behavior. They continue to pick and choose which infraction to
    enforce and upon whom, many of which are defenseless enlisted
    members, young and midgrade officers. None of them, none of
    them are themselves.
        I have attached in my written reports at least ten accounts
    from women currently in the fleet who have had countless times
    and interactions with admirals and above, documenting their
    behavior, their abhorrent behavior, and yet no one has come
    forward and held each other accountable. I am well aware this
    issue is not isolated to the Academy, and like my colleague
    Jenn has stated, it has been issued time and time and time
    again. In every single report, we have the data, we have the
    analytics, but the unspoken and the unwritten rule is the flag
    corps and the captains will look out only for themselves. They
    will not hold each other to accountability, and they will not
    exercise their authority under the UCMJ, and either they are
    incapable or otherwise unwilling to do so.
        Every single time we have these discussions, we end up here
    today, promising future-oriented action. Faith in the Coast
    Guard within its own members is destroyed. It is not eroded; it
    is destroyed. The only way senior leaders can even hope to fix
    this is to go through every single member of the flag corps who
    was involved in these disgraceful cover-ups, to bring them out
    of retirement, which they have the authority to do, and to hold
    them accountable under the UCMJ.
        Senator Blumenthal. Thank you. A central element of this
    cover-up, the culture of cover-up is blame the victim. It is
    one of the oldest tactics in denying justice for sexual
    assault. I am going to turn to the Ranking Member, but let me
    just assure everyone here, so far as this Committee is
    concerned, we are not going to fire and forget. We are going to
    pursue what you have told us and make sure that there is
    accountability. Senator Johnson?
        Senator Johnson. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to second
    what you said earlier. I have been here more than 12 years, and
    this is probably some of the most powerful, important, and on-
    point testimony I have heard. You have done an extraordinary
    job under a difficult situation laying out what the facts are
    and what the problem is, plus what the solution is. It is
    accountability. It is exposure. It is naming and shaming. It is
    pretty obvious what has to be done, and it is also pretty
    obvious that it has not been done. You can only talk about
    improving culture so long before you actually start doing it,
    and the only way to do it, again, accountability, exposure, the
    truth, naming and shaming.
        Here is my disconnect. I am a father; I have daughters. I
    have a sister. I cannot even watch a rape scene in a movie,
    much less even begin to contemplate what it is like to be
    raped. OK? It is horrific. Murder is bad, but it ends, right?
    Rape just continues. It is a horrific crime against another
    person. You have men serving in these commands. I do not
    understand why they do not come to grips with this why they are
    not outraged. Listen, I am sure there are instances where it is
    kind of there are he-said, she-saids. I understand the
    difficult nature of some of this stuff, but some of this is so
    clear-cut, and you have got DNA evidence, that type thing. Can
    somebody explain that to me?
        The other disconnect is I think almost to a person, you are
    saying you love the Coast Guard, so there is obviously good
    elements there. There are obviously--and I would hope the vast
    majority are good people that are serving there, they are
    patriots, defending our freedom and look out for each other.
    Can you get down to the core of why this has been allowed to go
    on? I will start with you, Commander Yount.
        Commander Yount. Wow.
        Senator Johnson. Does the question even make sense to you?
        Commander Yount. The question makes sense. I am not sure
    that I have an answer. I would say from my experience
    particularly as a cadet, there were two things that were really
    predominant. Certainly one is alcohol. A lot of the experiences
    were definitely alcohol-based, and----
        Senator Johnson. But that is what might have led to the
    instance. I am talking about, why the cover-up?
        Commander Yount. Right. Oh, the cover-up.
        Senator Johnson. In our era.
        Commander Yount. Yes.
        Senator Johnson [continuing]. And you mentioned in your
    testimony that there was certainly an attitude back then that
    women do not belong here.
        Commander Yount. Right. Oh, yes.
        Senator Johnson. Does that attitude still continue, I mean
    decades later?
        Commander Yount. You would have to ask Kyra that one.
        Cadet Holmstrup. Senator, if I may, that attitude does not
    continue.
        Senator Johnson. OK, good.
        Cadet Holmstrup. My class is 40 percent female, and our top
    cadets in our class are female as well. I would like to touch
    on a little bit of what your question is asking. Men are
    outraged as well. Men and women are both victims of sexual
    assault in the Coast Guard, and I have many mentors who are men
    who are supporting me today, and who were outraged when they
    heard about my story. I do not think that there is anyone in
    the Coast Guard that is not outraged about this. But talking a
    little bit more about our culture, we have this saying; it is
    called ship, shipmate, self. First, you have to take care of
    the ship, and then you have to take care of your shipmates, and
    then you can finally take care of yourself. Really, what I saw,
    and still see today, is with your peers. When you come forward
    and talk about an assault that has occurred, especially in my
    case--he was a popular basketball player--his friends came to
    my room and they said, you are going to ruin his life.
        Senator Johnson. Yes, he kind of ruined yours.
        Cadet Holmstrup. Exactly. That was my argument----
        Senator Johnson. You are also a shipmate.
        Cadet Holmstrup. I am.
        Senator Johnson. Ms. Maro, in your testimony, it was
    striking--but when I needed them to testify to what they had
    witnessed, they were silent.
        Ms. Maro. Yes, they were.
        Senator Johnson. I mean you had other people you had
    helped, and then when you needed them to come forward to
    testify--and my guess is that is common, and that is really
    sort of the heart of this is, why--I mean is it literally I am
    not going to get a promotion? Again, sure, ship, shipmate, but
    you are a shipmate, too, so that one does not quite explain it.
    There is something else going on here, like omerta. Help me
    understand that. Why did your friends not come forward and say,
    this is wrong, we need to end this, we need to expose this?
    Again, accountability, exposure, name and shame. These people
    have to be drummed out of the service so this does not happen
    anymore. Again, you make some very public examples of a few
    people, and by and large that is going to go a long way toward
    solving this problem, but they have not done that. They have
    not even begun to do that, years, decades later. Talking about
    changing the culture, but they are not doing the one thing that
    has to be done. I'm filibustering, sorry.
        Ms. Maro. It is OK. You are making way too much sense,
    Senator. I have those very same questions. To piggyback off of
    what Kyra had just mentioned about her perpetrator's friends
    coming to her room to intimidate her, the same thing happened
    with me. In this particular instance where I had accused the
    now-lieutenant commander, who was a fourth-class with me when I
    was assaulted, I was groped in a group, in a room with 30 of my
    peers, and they watched, and they laughed. These are people,
    like I said in my testimony, who I had quite literally pushed
    over the wall in the obstacle course, or literally carried on
    my back during swim tests. Imagine that, people joining the
    Coast Guard who do not know how to swim. I had to carry them on
    my back. When it came time for them to speak up about what they
    had seen, they were so fearful that they kept their mouth shut.
    It just plays into the culture of cronyism that exists, and I
    cannot imagine that it has changed very much, because there is
    that deep fear of losing your career, like I did. I was the one
    that was pushed out instead.
        Senator Johnson. Mr. Chair, my time is up, but again I
    think largely the solution is known. It is what we are doing
    here. It is accountability. The only time you get
    accountability is you have to expose it. You need to tell the
    truth, and you have to tell the truth about individuals, and
    they are going to have to be held accountable, and they are
    going to have to pay a penalty for doing this. If we do that
    effectively, hopefully we can impact this to a significant
    degree. But we need to use every power we have as Congress, and
    we have allowed those powers of oversight to atrophy. We cannot
    allow that anymore. I mean across the board on these
    investigations, we need to demand accountability from these
    agencies, and we start here at the Coast Guard. Again, I
    appreciate you holding this. Again, I cannot tell you how
    impactful this testimony is. We have to do something about it,
    OK? We know what we need to do.
        Senator Blumenthal. What you see here is bipartisan
    agreement. [Laughter.]
        Exceedingly rare.
        Senator Johnson. That was very powerful testimony, OK?
        Senator Blumenthal. It is the result of your powerful
    testimony, and I am very grateful for your supporting this
    inquiry. Part of what we are trying to do is create safe spaces
    for this kind of bearing witness. Again, I appreciate your
    coming forward, and accountability is beginning here. Senator
    Butler.

                  OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR BUTLER

        Senator Butler. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to all
    of the witnesses who have come, and to those of you in the
    audience who have come to support them. What they are doing in
    sharing their stories and telling the truth about some of the
    most powerful organizations in our country is not an easy task.
    All of you are here in support of them, letting them know that
    in this moment, when others have failed them, you continue to
    stand with them, and so I want to appreciate all of you who are
    here in their support.
        A couple of questions that I have. Mr. Chair, I want to get
    to my questions, but I also do not want to lose the opportunity
    to note that I respect our Ranking Member and his having
    frustrations, and his freedom to share those frustrations. At
    the start of opening remarks, while I recognize that I am the
    newest member of this Subcommittee, the most junior senator,
    and I also happen to be the only woman sitting on this dais. I
    understand that there are frustrations abound in terms of the
    work that we all have to do on behalf of our constituency, and
    the most that we could do is to honor that these witnesses have
    come here to share their testimony, and allow them to get those
    stories out that they have prepared so nervously to offer.
        As the only woman sitting on this dais, I did not want to
    lose the opportunity--I would correct that to say, abdicate my
    responsibility to speak on behalf of the women who are here and
    those who are watching, to honor their stories, to honor their
    time, and honor their preparation getting to that. To the
    survivors who are here, you have shared a lot about your
    recommendations for things that this body could do and how
    Congress could join you in partnership to begin to orient
    toward action in addressing these challenges. I thank you for
    being specific in offering those recommendations.
        A question that I have is relative to what happens after
    the assaults, after you have made the courageous choice and
    decision to report. After you have been repeatedly victimized
    by the reporting structures and systems that you are obligated
    to abide by. What happens to you? What are the kinds of support
    services, including mental health support, did you receive in
    the time, and what kinds of services would you advocate that we
    include in our action-oriented continued oversight of this
    issue? I would love to start with Ms. Maro.
        Ms. Maro. Thank you for your question. I hope I answer it
    completely, so you can let me know if you want me to expound. I
    reluctantly came forward. I was dedicated to keeping my mouth
    shut, because I knew what would have happened if I accused
    shipmates of what they had done. I had confided in a civilian
    professor by accident. I was going to him for help because I
    was struggling with my schoolwork, and told him that I was
    extremely unhappy, that I hated it here, that I wanted to
    leave, and told him about what I was experiencing daily in the
    barracks. He told me, well, you know I am obligated to report
    this, correct? My heart just sank to my feet, because I knew
    what was going to happen to me after. Actually, to my surprise,
    nothing much came of it until maybe like two, --my memory is
    fuzzy, but it was not immediate.
        I had to answer to company commander, who then asked me if
    this was worth investigating. I said no, and then when later
    the investigation was forced, he proceeded to bring everyone,
    all the 30 people who were in the room at the time in for an
    interview, which meant that all my classmates knew exactly what
    I had accused one of the other shipmates of. I would have doors
    slammed in my face. The rumor mill ran rampant. The rumors were
    so ugly. It destroyed my reputation. I had no one to turn to. I
    was mocked in the hallway, and it just became so heavy that I
    just decided to leave. I was like, there is no way I am going
    to be able to function in the service without support from my
    shipmates. The bullying and the retaliation it is crushing.
        Senator Butler. I see the pain still on your face. Thank
    you. Cadet Holmstrup, you talked about your leadership role
    currently in CASA, and you were very specific in the
    recommendations that you thought that Congress should take. Can
    you talk to me about the mental health services and other kinds
    of post-traumatic supports that you feel like are necessary as
    a continued, sort of action-oriented package?
        Cadet Holmstrup. Yes, Senator. Thank you for that question.
    Really, what I have to say echoes what Caitlin just said. I
    also did not want to come forward about my case. Finally, a
    couple of weeks after the assault, I asked a CASA member, who
    was a firsty, to come and talk to me, and she stood in my room,
    and we had to have the door open. As I was telling her what had
    happened, I heard someone walk outside my door and stop, and
    that is when I stopped talking and I said that I think he is
    outside. She walked outside and there was the perpetrator,
    listening to my story. I was in fear, because he was my next-
    door neighbor, and he had a very angry outburst so the next
    day, I went and I made an unrestricted report to our duty
    officer. They did everything right. They informed everyone in
    my chain of command. They went through the entire checklist
    that they now have to do, and I was offered an SVC, a lawyer. I
    got in touch with a victim advocate, who saved my life, quite
    frankly, and then I got to talk to a chaplain. When I went to
    talk to that chaplain, he asked me who assaulted me, and I told
    him and he said: Oh, no. He is such a good guy. Then he
    proceeded to talk about how his kids were adopted from the same
    agency. I did not go back, but I did speak with the counselors
    on campus, and I have for 3 years now. We do have some measures
    in place of support, and quite frankly, as CASA president, I
    have healed by helping others get through this process.
        To answer your question, we do have a lot of measures in
    place to support victims and survivors after they report, but
    like I reference in my written testimony, we still need to
    buttress some of those.
        Senator Butler. Thank you so much. My last, just quick
    comment, Mr. Chair. I have a 9-year-old daughter, and if she is
    so fortunate to have examples like you fighting to create a
    better Coast Guard, I would be excited for her to join. Thank
    you, Mr. Chair.
        Senator Blumenthal. Thank you, Senator Butler. Senator
    Hawley.

                  OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR HAWLEY

        Senator Hawley. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thanks to you and the
    Ranking Member for holding this hearing today. Thank you for
    each of you; thank you for being here. Thank you for your
    courage. Thank you for your service to our country, first of
    all, and thank you for serving your country today by being here
    today to shine light and expose what has happened. I want to
    say, I cannot believe we are sitting here today. First of all,
    words fail me in saying what has happened to each of you and
    offering condolences. That does not begin to cut it, but I also
    cannot believe the extent of the cover-up for years and years
    and years and years. I also cannot believe, Mr. Chair, that the
    Coast Guard has had this report since 31 January, 2020, and
    they sit on it for 3-plus years and deliberately conceal it
    from us. I mean deliberately.
        Ms. Maro, I wanted to ask you about something you said in
    your written testimony. I cannot imagine what this was like for
    you. You said you found out from CNN that your case was
    included in Operation Fouled Anchor--I just want to read what
    you said here--``not from an Academy representative, not from
    Coast Guard Investigative Service (CGIS), not from Congress.
    The news was broken to me by the press over the phone, while I
    was wiping my child's runny nose.'' Tell us what it is like to,
    frankly, be betrayed in that way, such that you have a member
    of the press--which thank goodness they got it; thank goodness
    whomever was the whistleblower, whomever leaked it to them,
    because otherwise, we probably still would not know about it.
    Just tell us what that was like, to get a call and say, hey, by
    the way, there is this report that you have never heard of, and
    your case is in it; do you have a comment?
        Ms. Maro. Yes, I have several. I would like to start by
    saying that I wish I could put that whistleblower on my
    Christmas card list for the rest of my life, because without
    that whistleblower--something that I have thought that I had
    put to bed decades ago was just resurrected. I had been minding
    my own business the last several decades. I left the Academy,
    have not had careers like the other ladies up here. I am living
    a blissfully average life with my husband and my children in
    Tennessee. In a mom bun and my dirty leggings, my very good
    friend sent me a link in my text messages, saying, look at this
    CNN article. Were you not at the Academy during this time
    period? Again, my heart hit my feet, and I read the report, and
    I immediately contacted the CNN reporter. She immediately
    contacted me back and said, I have been looking for you. Your
    name is in this report; I have been looking for you. It was
    clear to me that even though I had been in therapy all those
    years that I had not healed.
        Like I mentioned in my testimony, I was wiping my son's
    runny nose, with my phone up my ear like this, listening to her
    tell me this, and I still do not have words. I have been
    suffering since June, since I heard. Went back into therapy and
    finally found a great counselor, who diagnosed me with complex
    post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). That was very freeing,
    so this has in many ways been a blessing for me, because I
    finally have a diagnosis for the things that I thought were
    just personality quirks these last 20 years. It was actually,
    in fact, PTSD. I do not know if that answered your question
    fully; I am happy to expound.
        Senator Hawley. It does.
        No, you bet it does. Can I ask you about something that you
    said a few minutes ago? Talking about back when you were at the
    Academy, talking about carrying people on your back in the
    pool, pushing them up over the walls in the obstacle course,
    and then none of them would come forward and support you. You
    said something that really struck me--you said, they were
    fearful, they were so fearful. Tell us about that dynamic. What
    were they fearful of, and why?
        Ms. Maro. Frankly, they were fearful of the stripes on
    leaders' shoulders. The bigger the stripes, the bigger the
    threat. We all know this.
        Senator Hawley. Walk us through that. What was the threat?
    If they supported you and they said, yes, she is telling the
    truth, what would happen?
        Ms. Maro. You would be blacklisted in a way. I do not know
    how else to better explain that. Every person that has gotten
    into a service academy knows how difficult it is, and how
    driven and how hardworking you have to be to get there. It is
    not like the normal acceptance routine that most kids have to
    go through to get into colleges. They are very special people.
    They are talented, they are hardworking, and they are smart. To
    get there, you had to work your tail off, and to stay there,
    you have to work equally as hard, and it was a lot to lose. To
    be kicked out, thrown on the streets without any VA help, for
    depression or suicidal thoughts, it is crushing. I had to start
    over from square one. Like I said in my written testimony, I
    had several National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)
    Division I rowing scholarships. I chose to go to the Coast
    Guard Academy to serve my country. I even turned down the Naval
    Academy to go there, too. Then after one semester, I am out on
    the streets, so to speak. It was a lot to lose.
        Senator Hawley. Yes, it is. Help us understand the culture.
    Leadership, they do not want to hear it, right? There is
    retaliation. There are repercussions. If somebody supports you,
    they are going to get blacklisted because the leadership does
    not want to deal with the problem, or they do not want to--
    explain that piece of it to us.
        Ms. Maro. I will do my best----
        Senator Hawley. Why was leadership in your case not saying,
    this is unbelievable. This is terrible. This is probably a
    crime. For many of you, it is a crime, what you described.
    Sexual assault is a crime. Rape is a crime. It is not just bad
    behavior; it is criminal behavior. Help us understand the
    culture that says, oh, we are going to see no evil, hear no
    evil, look the other way, we do not want to deal with it, such
    that if you press the issue and you say, no, actually, I was
    assaulted, actually, I was raped, they say, we have to silence
    you. We have to shut this down. We cannot deal with this. Why
    is that? I mean help us get into the mindset, their mindset--to
    the best you can, their mindset.
        Ms. Maro. Keep in mind, I was only there for one semester,
    so my experience is going to be a little bit more limited than
    the other ladies up here. But like others have touched on,
    there is this fear of retaliation, and then the Academy itself
    is an incredibly--especially your freshman year, is an
    incredibly strong pressure cooker-type environment. When I was
    there, you were not allowed to have cell phones. You were not
    allowed to have iPods, when they were back a thing. There is no
    music, there is no connection to the outside world, and you
    have to eat on squares. I do not know if you guys know what
    that is. You are braced up. You have to have your eyes in the
    book. There is no relief from this pressure, and I forget
    exactly where I was going with that. Excuse me. But so this
    pressure cooker-type environment just creates this difficulty
    in trying to--you are just taking care of yourself. You are in
    like survival mode, so to speak. It is hard to see someone
    suffer and then to speak out about it, because it also might
    spotlight you as well. If you are guilty of consuming alcohol
    underage, or guilty of doing something that would merit a
    demerit, you just keep your mouth shut. I cannot handle
    demerits on my record, I have bad grades, or I just do not want
    to spotlight myself. So think that is in a roundabout way, and
    I hope that answers your question.
        Senator Hawley. It does, and I do not want to monopolize
    the time, Mr. Chair, I would be interested, actually, in the
    response to that question from everybody. Is it OK, Mr. Chair?
        Senator Blumenthal. Yes, please, go ahead, Lieutenant
    McCafferty.
        Lieutenant McCafferty. Yes. Senator Hawley, I will try to
    make this as macrolevel as possible, given my 12 years of
    experience at literally every single level within the
    organization, from my fourth-class year as a cadet to the front
    office of Commandant Advisory Group. I served on the front
    office staff on the Commandant's Advisory Group for Admiral
    Zukunft, from 2016 until I ultimately was medically retired in
    2019 for sustained PTSD. What I observed directly in
    Headquarters at that office, where I am surrounded by the cream
    of the crop of senior leaders, is that they implement
    safeguards within each other, for each other, and I call these
    people the gatekeepers. Time and time again, I would go to
    these gatekeepers, my immediate boss, who was an 05, a
    commander, and an 06, a captain. I would come to them with
    legitimate problems backed by reams and reams of data.
        Example: 2016, we had a retention problem then, and it has
    only gotten worse. I tried to bring this to the awareness of
    Admiral Zukunft and was told outright not to do it. Those
    gatekeepers prohibited access to him so that they did not have
    to give him bad news, and the reason they did this is because
    they were up for promotion. I hate to say it. I honestly hate
    to be the one to call this out, but this is the reality. This
    is it. This is the reason. They just want to promote. They want
    to make the next rank. They want to become a captain. The
    captains want to become an admiral, and they want to join that
    so-called esteemed and privileged club. That is exactly what it
    is, and they do not care about the carnage left in their wake.
    They do not care about their loyalty to the oath. They do not
    care. They want to make the next rank, and I have seen it in
    the fleet, at the Academy, at the senior-most levels, and I
    have seen it time and time and time and again. While I really
    do applaud my colleague's optimism in that it is better, I have
    seen the reality, and I have not been out that long. I retired
    in 2019, at the pinnacle of my career, having saved with my
    teams nearly 17,000 people. Yet this organization, these senior
    leaders who are still here, refuse to do something they could
    easily do tonight.
        Should Admiral Fagan be genuine in her ability and her
    action to do something, she could recall every single one of
    those senior leaders tonight. She could charge them under her
    authority given to her via the UCMJ, and she could hold them
    accountable. But the unspoken and the unwritten rule that I
    have learned from my own experiences--and again, I need to
    caveat this that not everyone in the flag corps, not all
    captains are bad. Many, many are good. But the ones in power,
    the ones who make the decisions, the ones who overrule
    convictions, criminal convictions are the ones who often stay
    the longest and rise the ranks to the highest point.
        Then when you add in the complexity of a gatekeeper, an 06,
    a one-star, or a commander, they are simply not getting the
    information that they need. That is the reality of the
    situation. It comes down to individual ego and ambition, and
    their need and desire to promote for power.
        Senator Blumenthal. Thank you, Senator Hawley. I think we
    have time for some additional questions. I am going to ask
    some, and then yield to my colleagues if they have any. Let me
    begin by asking you, Lieutenant McCafferty, about a specific
    instance that I think proves your point. There have been public
    reports that the Coast Guard leadership declined to court-
    martial former Coast Guard Academy professor Captain Glenn
    Sulmasy after he was found to have had inappropriate
    communications with a student, even though investigators
    recommended charges for conduct unbecoming an officer, and
    willful dereliction of duty. I think you experienced harassment
    from Captain Sulmasy. Let me ask you about that experience.
    What does the decision not to prosecute tell you about this
    culture of cover-up?
        Lieutenant McCafferty. I think that what has happened with
    Glenn Sulmasy--and forgive me; I no longer address him as
    captain, because frankly I do not think he deserves the level
    of respect according to that position, so I just call him Glenn
    Sulmasy--but I think that is the perfect example. It is a most
    visible example. It is certainly one of the most well-
    documented examples. Here you have a situation where a captain,
    a United States Coast Guard active-duty captain, who was a dean
    of the humanities department, over years not only reached out
    to cadets inappropriately, touched them inappropriately, and
    God forbid, to my knowledge--and I cannot confirm or deny this,
    because it was just through the rumors--had sexual intercourse
    with these cadets as well, continued to do it with impunity for
    years. When I first started having interactions with Glenn
    Sulmasy, I reported it. I reported it to a midlevel officer at
    the Academy, and the impression I received from that
    conversation was the reality is, reporting aside, he is
    untouchable. He is protected at very high levels, and we know
    this is happening. We are aware of it, they are aware of it,
    and nothing will be done.
        When I learned that he had--and this is the only reason why
    I am here today--like my colleague, I was finally at a place
    physically, emotionally, mentally, to put all of this behind.
    It took me almost 4 years after my suicide attempt to regain
    any semblance of composure and rationality and reality. The
    impacts were devastating. I cannot understate that it was
    devastating, and the only reason why I am here today is because
    a classmate sent me a news article that Glenn Sulmasy was
    opening a women's college. A known sexual predator within our
    organization, documented, verified, substantiated, was not only
    allowed to retire with honors and a government pension, they
    then wrote him a letter of recommendation endorsing his
    integrity and his character, and they continued to protect him.
        The sad reality is, I have received communications from
    civilians who have been impacted by his conduct. We knowingly
    let a sexual predator into the world to become in another
    position of power at not just one, but two colleges, where
    multiple women have been impacted. If this is not a textbook
    case of exactly what I am mentioning, I honestly do not know
    what is. To my knowledge, as of today they have still done
    nothing. They could bring him back, and even if they could not
    substantiate charges under rape or sexual assault, or
    retaliation or bullying, or the numerous articles outlined in
    the UCMJ, they could easily charge him with conduct unbecoming
    of. They could easily charge him with dereliction of duty. They
    choose not to, and that is the problem right there, in its
    essence, at its core.
        Senator Blumenthal. Ms. Maro, I was struck by your telling
    us that the Coast Guard would not give you your own records,
    and then by your question, what are they hiding? I think that
    is the question that lingers here, and will linger after this
    testimony, and will be the challenge for this Committee, and
    will be a focus for this Committee in demanding the emails that
    go to the reasons, for example, as Senator Hawley said, that
    3\1/2\ years the Fouled Anchor report was withheld. It was the
    result of an investigation that started in 2014. It took 6
    years to complete, even though it was covering only a limited
    time period and a limited number of cases. Then from January
    2020 to June 2023, nothing--until CNN disclosed it. If CNN had
    not disclosed it, we might still not know about it. Maybe talk
    a little bit about what you think this concealment of your
    records, and other facts that are important for us to know,
    means to us.
        Ms. Maro. Thank you for that question. I appreciate the
    chance to answer that. The Fouled Anchor report came out, I
    found out about it, and I immediately filed a FOIA request for
    that report. It was denied. Like I mentioned, at that point I
    reached out directly to the Coast Guard Academy, just trying to
    do my best to gather as much about my file as possible. I got
    some of it. It was clear that there was a lot missing, because
    the very last piece of paper that was in that 132-page file, by
    the way, and I was only there for a semester, was this email.
        It was from the then-civilian professor that I confided in,
    to my company commander. Called me unstable in this email to my
    company commander, and then at the very end, he has a very
    small aside at the bottom saying fourth-class stopper,
    mentioned something about sexual harassment and assault in the
    barracks. I trust that you are looking into this. At the
    bottom, there is a handwritten note from my company commander,
    looks like to then-Assistant Commandant of Cadets Commander
    Pulver, saying, this turned out not to be about sexual
    harassment but a dispute with her first-class division lead,
    who would not let her boyfriend study with her during study
    hour.
        My company commander, who wrote that note, never talked to
    me about this. He never got that information from me, and this
    was the last thing that was in my file. I noticed that the rest
    of the investigation that supposedly happened was not in there.
    I went back to the person, Amanda Tiessen, at the academy,
    asking her where the remainder was, and then all of a sudden, I
    find myself talking to the current assistant commandant of
    cadets, Commander Casavant, who told me to submit a FOIA for my
    own personal records. I share your frustration with the FOIA
    process, Senator Johnson, because if I FOIA'd it, they would
    have reserved the right to redact anything and everything. But
    even that aside, I should not have to FOIA for my own
    documents. They are mine; they belong to me.
        Further, to expound on that, I was working with a staff
    member on the Commerce Committee after the hearing that they
    held in July with Admiral Fagan, and she had her boots on the
    ground in August, I believe, at the Academy to investigate what
    came up. The Academy released part of that investigation to
    her, without my express permission. So the Academy will release
    documentation to Congress without my permission, or an
    individual's permission, but they will not release it to me.
        Senator Blumenthal. Thank you. I have one more question,
    because I know we are going to hear from people, oh, you know,
    this is really regrettable, it is too bad that members of the
    Coast Guard had to go through this horrific experience, and
    frankly, we get this comment a lot--do you not have better
    things to do? Do you not have more important things? This is
    about our national security. The Coast Guard is a military
    service. They not only rescue people who are desperate at sea,
    they interdict illegal drugs. You provide essential national
    security services. The Coast Guard is a really important
    military security institution, and let me just ask Colonel
    Fenner, as an Air Force veteran, not a member of the Coast
    Guard but as a historian and scholar--would you agree that this
    issue is a national security and national defense issue?
        Colonel Fenner. Absolutely, sir, and thank you for the
    question. As a historian, it is shocking, but it is not new. It
    is shocking that it has continued for so long. But to speak to
    national security--again I have the DOD background--as
    Secretary Austin has emphasized over his short tenure, the
    people are the thing. The people drive the ships. The people
    rescue the other people. The people fire the weapons. If you do
    not take care of your people and their families, then you have
    this recruiting problem, this retention problem, this readiness
    problem, all of the associated problems of mental health and
    depression. Then do you have an effective, ready force to put
    in the field, under stress and under fire? No, we do not.
        Taking care of all the people, the young men who have had
    these experiences that are not sitting here, the families who
    have dealt with the aftermath of their loved ones being
    assaulted and ostracized in this way, all of us are affected.
    It is from time immemorial, Senator Johnson, that one can ask
    themselves, where are these people with daughters and wives and
    sisters, and sons in some cases, who are not outraged, who are
    not taking proactive actions? That is to me as shocking as it
    is to you, sir, that everybody knows somebody, and yet nobody
    knows anybody.
        On the plus side, a historical story. In the 1940s, women
    were part of preparedness movements, and they made up their own
    uniforms so they could be militaristic, and they were going to
    do home-front things. All of the generals on the Joint Staff
    did not want women in the services, to actually serve, and in
    our case exactly, in the reserves. Then the daughters started
    talking to their fathers, and all of a sudden, a whole bunch of
    generals were converted to agreeing to put women in the
    military. How do we affect the fathers and the brothers and the
    spouses? In my case of sexual harassment, as a faculty member,
    it was my male colleagues who helped report and supported me.
    When the men get as interested in this problem on a larger
    scale as the women are, we might see change in a positive
    direction. Thank you, sir.
        Senator Blumenthal. Thank you. Senator Johnson, if you have
    any questions.
        Senator Johnson. Yes, thanks, Mr. Chairman. Yes, I would
    hope back then, the 40s, the rationale of trying to keep women
    out of the service was because they wanted to protect them.
    Right? Now women are showing how valuable they are, and we are
    still not doing a very good job protecting them, OK?
        Colonel Fenner. That is exactly right, sir. We were trying
    to protect them from the enemy, and yet the enemy within is the
    problem now.
        Senator Johnson. Ms. Maro, I hope you are successful in
    your FOIA request, but my guess is if you are, that is what you
    are going to get. Mr. Chair, so what I would suggest, the first
    subpoena we should issue, and we ought to not wait, is subpoena
    the records to be delivered to Ms. Maro. Not to the Committee,
    but to Ms. Maro. She deserves to have her service records, and
    she deserves to have them now. I would request that we, if it
    is possible, to subpoena delivered to somebody else. Again,
    this is a private issue. She can get that and she can do
    whatever she wants to, but she deserves those service records.
    I would request we issue that subpoena.
        I would also say because we have someone currently serving
    here, First-Class Cadet Holmstrup--we have all kinds of
    whistleblower protections in law, and they are not very
    effective. It is really sick, quite honestly, how effective and
    pervasive retaliation is against people, courageous people that
    come forward and report to Congress. I want to make sure that
    the Coast Guard, the services are on notice that this Committee
    will not tolerate any retaliation against any witness here. I
    think that is extremely important.
        Then the last thing, I just again want to talk about how
    effective and important this testimony was. I had my opening
    question, just basically asking why. I mean, why does somebody
    not step forward? In answering Senator Hawley's question,
    particularly talking about your case, Ms. Maro, if you are the
    commandant there looking for a promotion, and all of a sudden
    you see this scandal that could erupt, where a female cadet is
    groped while 20 other cadets witnessed it and giggled about it.
    Now you are going to lose a class--what, about 20, 30, maybe
    more individuals? I am not condoning it at all, but you helped
    me understand why this has not been addressed when it is all
    about promoting, and boy, is that going to be a stain on my
    career. I do not want to be the commandant of the Academy when
    that scandal erupted. I would imagine there is an awful lot of
    pressure.
        Again, not condoning it all, but thank you again for your
    testimony. You have gotten me to understand a whole lot more
    about what the problem is, but again, as witnesses you have all
    basically said the solution here is accountability, which
    requires exposure, which requires the truth, which requires
    this Committee to be absolutely dedicated to subpoenaing and
    making sure that these records are made available so we can
    expose it, we can get the truth, and there can be
    accountability. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
        Senator Blumenthal. Thank you, Senator Johnson.
        Senator Hawley.
        Senator Hawley. I want to follow up on something that you
    said, Mr. Chair. You said a second ago that this is about our
    national security, which I completely agree with. But you know
    what? It is also about the integrity of our government. It is
    one thing to have corporate leaders come in here and sit where
    you are sitting and lie to us, and frankly, they do it all the
    time. We have people come into this hearing room and lie to us
    constantly, mislead us, withhold information, lie to us, but
    when our own government does it, it is to say that it is
    unacceptable does not begin--we ought to have the salty
    language you were talking about earlier, Commander. I mean we
    could not keep this hearing PG and say what needs to be said.
        The fact that these people, this leadership commissioned
    this report in 2014, which was itself too late, and sat on it
    for years, and not just sat on it but actively worked to
    conceal it, is unbelievable. I want to say--I am glad we have
    press here--I want to say for the leadership of the Coast
    Guard, it is not acceptable. I do not want to hear--I do not
    want to see any more memos from you where you say, oh, we have
    to work on our culture. No, no, no, we are past that point now.
        You have lied to us. They lied to you. They have lied to
    the American people. They need to sit where you are sitting,
    take the oath, and explain to the country what has gone on.
    That is what needs to happen. I do not want to hear any more of
    it. I do not want to hear any more of the softly worded memos.
    I do not want to hear any more of the, we will do better next
    time. We are past all of that. We are past that. They have
    broken our trust. Frankly, when you see the trust constantly
    broken at institution after institution in this government, it
    is no wonder that people across this country just are in
    despair, regardless of their politics. It is unbelievable. Ms.
    Maro, you wanted to make a comment; I will yield my time to
    you.
        Ms. Maro. I appreciate that. Thank you, Senator. To
    piggyback off of what you just said, Senator Hawley, and what
    Senator Johnson's final remarks were, I think we should all
    take a moment to reflect on the idea that Linda Fagan, the
    commandant of the Coast Guard, the first woman commandant of
    the Coast Guard--we should be here like cheering that, right?
    That is exciting. She has a chance to make this right. But I
    also think it is most important for us to sit and think about
    that her predecessor left her with this report, Operation
    Fouled Anchor, in her inbox. She was left to hold this bag from
    her predecessor, Karl Schultz. He is in retirement right now,
    sipping mai tais on a beach somewhere. I do not know, whatever
    retired admirals do in their free time on retirement. I am not
    sure. But I think that both Admiral Schultz and Admiral Fagan
    should come in here and explain to you all, first of all,
    Admiral Fagan's inconsistencies to her testimony to the
    Commerce Committee, where she said that everyone was contacted,
    and that everyone on which she had jurisdiction over was
    punished. My assailant is a lieutenant commander, was not
    punished. I was in Fouled Anchor. I was not contacted. I think
    that she should come in here and explain herself, and I also
    think that Admiral Schultz should come in here and explain
    himself, and why he left Operation Fouled Anchor on her inbox.
    That is all I have to say. Thank you.
        Senator Blumenthal. Thank you, Mrs. Maro. You have read our
    minds. We are certainly going to pursue those two individuals
    and others, and I am really heartened by the bipartisan support
    that we have for this continued effort. Senator Hassan?

                  OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR HASSAN

        Senator Hassan. Thank you, Chair Blumenthal and Ranking
    Member Johnson for holding this important hearing and for those
    comments just now. More importantly, thank you to all of our
    witnesses for your willingness to come before the Committee
    today and testify about your experiences, which shows true
    courage and bravery. We are really grateful for that.
        I am deeply disturbed, as are the other Members of this
    Committee, by the Coast Guard's inadequate and unjust response
    to sexual assaults and harassment at the Coast Guard Academy
    and within the service. It took nearly 40 years for the Coast
    Guard and the Academy to take a hard look at its culture and
    processes for addressing sexual assault, and another 6 to 7
    years to complete its investigation. Then it took the agency
    another 2\1/2\ years to release the findings of its
    investigation. Whether it stems from negligence or malfeasance,
    it is unacceptable that the Coast Guard buried the Operation
    Fouled Anchor report for so long. The women and men of the
    Coast Guard, who commit their lives to their country and to
    keeping all of us safe, secure, and free, deserve a system that
    treats victims with dignity and fairness, is committed to
    holding wrongdoers accountable, and recognizes that a Coast
    Guard that treats women as second-class citizens fails to
    uphold American values, and undermines its own mission as a
    result.
        With that, I did want to ask a question. I know from others
    who have been following this hearing all morning that a number
    of my questions have been answered, so I am not going to make
    you go through all of that again. But I did want, Cadet
    Holmstrup, to start with you. In your testimony, you explained
    how your attacker was able to continue to harass you, including
    violating a No Contact Order, even after you made an
    unrestricted report to the Academy. You also noted that the
    Academy's poor handling of your initial report and your reports
    of ongoing harassment contributed to your trauma. How could the
    Academy better uphold its responsibility to protect victims
    from continued harassment, and renew trust in the Sexual
    Misconduct Reporting and Adjudication Process?
        Cadet Holmstrup. Thank you, Senator, for that question. I
    do believe that there are many things that were dropped during
    my case. One of those things that I ask for in my written
    testimony is about Special Victims' Counsels. I did not have
    the ability to understand what was going on with my case. I,
    like Caitlin, have to FOIA for my case packet. I have not seen
    the entirety of it as well, and neither did my SVC, my lawyer
    at the time, so he was not able to fully prepare me for what I
    was going into.
        The No Contact Order was very difficult as well, because
    when I tried to communicate with my command what was going on,
    they said, he is going to be out soon. That was kind of my
    response, until the National Defense Authorization Act of 2021.
        Senator Hassan. Helpful to know. Still work to be done. I
    had one other follow-up, and you all can each answer it or
    choose not to, but what kind of pressure, if any, did you face
    from the institution related to how you made your report? What
    kind of pushback did you get? We will start with you, and we
    will just go right down the line.
        Commander Yount. Senator, as I stated, I received demerits
    for having the door broken. I did not make a report, because I
    received demerits for a door broken and I thought, that is what
    they think of this.
        Senator Hassan. Right. That is the signal they sent, right?
        Commander Yount. Yes, ma'am.
        Senator Hassan. Yes, OK. Cadet.
        Cadet Holmstrup. Senator, I felt very much supported by my
    command when I made my report. They sent it up the chain
    correctly. They hit everything on the checklist. I was
    investigated by the Coast Guard Investigative Services.
    However, it was the aftermath of it and some of the policies
    that Congress enacted that really hindered my case and
    contributed to that trauma.
        Senator Hassan. Thank you. Ms. Maro.
        Ms. Maro. I did not receive necessarily any demerits or any
    specific sorts of punishment, but I did, as things started to
    progress during my investigation, get comments, intimidating,
    threatening comments from cadets that were in leadership
    positions over me. My first-class cadet that was over me in my
    division actually told me that I was looking for somebody to
    blame on my way out because I was struggling academically, that
    I wanted to see the world burn. So yes, I did not receive
    anything specific. My investigation happened so quickly, and I
    decided to leave in the middle of my investigation, before it
    was completed. I have some documentation that I received from
    the Senate staffer that received part of my investigation and
    not me. Some of these letters were forwarded to me, and there
    is proof in there that as soon as I left, the administrative
    investigation did not conclude. Back to Senator Johnson, I do
    not even know if they have anything. I do not even know if the
    investigation ensued, so.
        Senator Hassan. Thank you. Those comments certainly reflect
    culture, right, along with the leadership's lack of action.
    Lieutenant.
        Lieutenant McCafferty. Yes, Senator. Again, I never
    reported anything, because I knew at that point my career would
    be over before it had even started. I did absolutely get
    demerits during my 4 years. For example, I had a pet crab in my
    drawer with my roommate, because we were lonely and wanted a
    friend. We had to release him, unfortunately, when we were
    caught, so that was three demerits. I left my window open, two
    demerits. I did receive demerits, but I have never received
    demerits in retaliation for reporting anything, because I have
    never reported anything. What I will say is that I represented
    a third-class cadet when I was a second-class. She was a
    sophomore, I was a junior, and she approached me in confidence
    about extensive harassment by a group of young men. These young
    men called themselves The Gentlemen's Club. I spoke with her at
    length about the reality and what we should do and how we
    should approach this--and I said I am happy to support you. If
    we both go down, we both go down, but I will go down doing the
    right thing with you. We ended up coming forward, and all of
    those four individuals were brought to mast. Only one was
    required to leave. He was later allowed to reenlist in the
    Coast Guard in Michigan, my home State. This individual, who
    had a sexual misconduct charge, was forced out of the Academy,
    then got to reenlist into the Coast Guard and is currently
    serving.
        The lesson becomes abundantly clear to all of us who do
    report--like if you do report, this is what is going to happen,
    so the majority of us frankly just do not, because we value our
    career. We want to do well. We want to help other people, and
    we do not want to jeopardize our own career, and our own
    safety, and our own mental health, because time and time again,
    this is exactly what happens.
        Senator Hassan. Yes. With your indulgence, Mr. Chair, I
    would like to hear from the Colonel, too.
        Colonel Fenner. Thank you, ma'am. I am certainly in a whole
    different group, but just to indicate--no matter how much
    changes, nothing changes. Two quick incidences, because over 26
    years, it happens a lot. But in the first case, as I was
    harassed as a faculty member at the Air Force Academy, the
    department led an administrative procedure. They put a letter
    of reprimand into the more senior officer than I's folder. That
    comes out when he transfers. They did transfer him away. They
    put him in charge of basic trainees at Lackland Air Force Base
    (LAFB), instead of getting him out of a chain where he could
    assault and harass people, and he did make 0-6 and retire from
    the service.
        In the second instance, I was on the faculty. Apparently, a
    number of young women felt comfortable coming to report to me
    that they had either been assaulted or harassed. I collected
    their stories. I happened to confide in another faculty mate.
    Somehow that got to the commandant. I was a junior captain. I
    was called into the commandant's office, outside my chain of
    command, and asked why they were coming to me, who was it, what
    they said, and I refused to give names or anything. Then they
    said, why do they not report to us? I said with all due respect
    to the two-star, this is why they do not report to you, that if
    a captain, faculty member outside the chain of command gets
    called on the carpet.
        Senator Hassan. Right.
        Colonel Fenner. It is way before what happened to them, and
    what is shocking is it is still happening.
        Senator Hassan. Yes. Again, I thank you all for being here
    and for your bravery and courage, and for your service. Thanks.
        Senator Blumenthal. Thank you, Senator Hassan. I think we
    have reached the conclusion for now, but I want to join in
    thanking my colleagues, and I am just left with amazement and
    determination that we will pursue this matter. Amazement at
    your courage and tenacity, and determination that we are going
    to make sure that we rely on whatever truth-telling tools we
    have to make sure that we illuminate and uncover whatever we
    can here. I mentioned these statistics before--an estimated 51
    percent of cadet women have had an experience which met
    criteria for sexual harassment in just the past year--51
    percent. 28.3 percent of female cadets said they have
    experienced unwanted sexual contact before--since entering the
    Academy. Only 15 percent who experienced unwanted sexual
    conduct in the last year reported it, and half of them have
    experienced retaliation.
        This is not ancient history. This is a 2022 survey, last
    year. I respect that there is new leadership at the Academy. We
    all know who the new superintendent is and who the previous one
    was. We know who past commandants have been and who the present
    one is. We are going to explore these issues with past and
    present leadership, as well as others who may have information.
    Normally, we would leave the record open for 2 weeks; I am
    going to leave it open until February 1 so that others who have
    these kinds of stories can submit them, and we will make them
    part of this record. In other words, anybody who is hearing
    about this hearing and who wants to submit their stories, as a
    number have done already to us, they can do it anonymously. We
    will take it; we will make it part of the record. Senator
    Johnson.
        Senator Johnson. Again, I just want to thank the witnesses,
    and I want to thank you. This is an important hearing, and I am
    truly dedicated to do everything we possibly can. It is going
    to take subpoenas; we are going to have to subpoena. These
    folks are not going to cooperate, so we are going to have to
    use every compulsory process we have to extract the truth out
    of these folks, but I am dedicated to doing it and I certainly
    want to join you in doing so. But again, thank you so much for
    your service, and thanks for your testimony.
        Senator Blumenthal. This hearing is adjourned.
        [Whereupon, at 12:16 p.m., the hearing was adjourned.]

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