December 2023 — M2CC Newsletter

18 | M2CC - News www.m2cc.us DECEMBER 2023 EDITION
congressional requests related to the incidents
and that the Coast Guard Investigative
Service is "conducting additional inquiries as
warranted."
The commandant also announced reforms to
training, education, victim services and other
programs that are to take place within the next
year to improve overall response.
"We must ensure that every Coast Guard
workplace has a climate that deters harmful
behaviors and gives everyone the positive
Coast Guard experience they expect and
deserve," Fagan wrote.
This week, the Coast Guard posted a copy
of a 2015 "Culture of Respect" study on the
commandant's website after CNN obtained a
copy and published a report on it. The report,
which, like the Operation Fouled Anchor
investigation, was concealed for nearly a
decade, found that the Coast Guard failed to
address racism, hazing and discrimination as
well as sexual assault in its ranks.
After the release of the report, Sen. Chris
Murphy, D-Conn., whose state is home to the
Coast Guard Academy, questioned how many
more "damning" reports the Coast Guard has
not made public.
"I am in disbelief that we are once again having
a conversation about Coast Guard leadership
covering up evidence of pervasive harassment,
discrimination, racism, sexism and assault
within its organization," Murphy wrote in a
release Nov. 30. "This culture of avoidance
and cover-up needs to end."
The House Homeland Security Permanent
Subcommittee on Investigations has a hearing
planned for Dec. 12 on sexual assault and
harassment in the Coast Guard.
Ahead of the hearing, K. Denise Rucker Krepp,
a former Coast Guard officer and former chief
counsel of the Maritime Administration, wrote
subcommittee leaders about the report, noting
that current Coast Guard leaders refuse "to
hold past leaders accountable."
"Past systemic failed leadership destroyed
lives and the cancer of failed leadership is
destroying the health of today's Coast Guard,"
Krepp wrote in a letter obtained by Military.
com. "Please continue to hold the hearings
on the sexual assault that are occurring in the
Coast Guard. Please demand that past leaders,
including those I served with in the Coast
Guard legal community, be held accountable.
Please stop the rot."
The witness list for the sexual assault hearing
has not been released.