Coast Guard whistleblower refuses to resign and calls for action to cover up sexual assault

NEW LONDON — The Coast Guard whistleblower who exposed the Coast Guard’s cover-up of sexual violence cases last month says she will not resign, citing the admiral’s “persistent and deliberate refusal” to help survivors.

In a letter released Wednesday to Maritime Legal Aid & Advocacy, Shannon Norenberg, the Coast Guard’s sexual assault response coordinator, asked Admiral Commandant Linda Fagan to “refocus her attention on the survivors of Operation Fouled Anchor” – an investigation that detailed the Coast Guard’s decades-long failure to handle sexual assault cases at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London.

“The OFA survivors – our fellow Coast Guard members – are in crisis,” Nourenberg wrote. “Many suffer from severe post-traumatic stress disorder and debilitating emotional trauma caused not only by the sexual abuse they endured while at the Academy, but also by the unscrupulous manner in which they were treated during the OFA ‘investigations’ and during the subsequent cruel cover-up.”

Norenberg made headlines last month after she claimed the Coast Guard made her lie to sexual assault victims to cover up the department’s misconduct before Congress. She wrote that the Coast Guard made her go on an “apology tour” for victims but was banned from issuing resources such as CG-6095s, a form the military uses to file with the Department of Veteran’s Affairs for benefits for victims of sexual assault.

Although Fagan promised to be more transparent during a congressional hearing a few days after Norenberg’s original article was published, nothing has changed at the Coast Guard, Norenberg said.

“Your continued and deliberate refusal to care for these survivors is not mere neglect; you are perpetuating an ongoing, life-threatening emergency that requires immediate intervention and leadership,” she wrote.

Norenberg, who had previously announced that she would step down from her post, now writes that she has returned to her post, saying it is her “moral obligation” to fulfill her duty to support survivors.

In her letter, Norenberg laid out a list of five actions Fagan should take, including establishing an “Operation Fouled Anchor Outreach Team” to contact survivors and introduce them to resources, providing them with an easier way to complete and access their investigative records, providing them with CG-6095 forms and entering each case into the Defense Sexual Assault Incident Database.

“The survivors of sexual assault at the Coast Guard Academy can no longer be forgotten or neglected. They are my primary concern, and they should be yours as well,” Norenberg wrote.

The Coast Guard did not respond to an immediate request for comment.