Coast Guard Academy whistleblower changes course, says she’ll remain in post
New London ― Shannon Norenberg, the whistleblowing U.S. Coast Guard Academy official who announced last month she was resigning after learning the Coast Guard had “used” her to help cover up the results of an investigation of sexual assaults at the academy, no longer intends to resign, and accuses the Coast Guard commandant of “perpetuating an ongoing, life-threatening emergency.”
Norenberg, in a letter Wednesday to the commandant, Adm. Linda Fagan, said she is not resigning as the academy’s sexual assault response coordinator, a position she has held for 11 years.
“I have been on paid leave since I blew the whistle last month, but I have now returned to my post at the Academy,” Norenberg writes in the letter. “Until the survivors of Coast Guard Academy sexual abuse receive the support and resources they need, I will not resign, and will not sign any resignation paperwork, as Coast Guard legal has requested of me. Instead, I will continue to serve dutifully in my role as the Coast Guard Academy SARC.”
She said she would focus on assisting the survivors of “Operation Fouled Anchor,” the 2020 report of the Coast Guard’s internal investigation of decades of rapes and sexual assaults at the academy. The report’s existence only came to light last year when CNN, the cable news network, revealed it.
Norenberg told academy officials on May 20 that she intended to resign and has not set foot on the New London campus since then, according to her attorney, Ryan Melogy, who said Thursday academy officials have canceled her electronic access to the school.
“I don't know why they would lock her out of the IT systems and cancel her access card after I told their attorneys on June 10 that she was not resigning,” Melogy said in an email.
In a June 9 statement posted on the website of Maritime Legal Aid & Advocacy Ltd., a nonprofit organization, Norenberg said she discovered she’d been lied to by Coast Guard officials.
“Worse that that,” she said, “they used me to lie to victims, used me to silence victims and used me in a coordinated effort to discourage victims of sexual assault at the Academy from speaking to Congress about their assaults and about the Coast Guard’s investigation of their cases.”
She made her allegations public two days before a U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing on the Coast Guard’s handling of sexual assaults and the “Operation Fouled Anchor” report. During the hearing, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., the subcommittee chairman, led a grilling of Fagan, the Coast Guard commandant.
Norenberg sat behind Fagan at the hearing.
“You committed to ‘full transparency’ and pledged to ensure that OFA (Operation Fouled Anchor) survivors could avail themselves of veterans benefits and receive the support they’re entitled to,” Norenberg writes in her letter to Fagan. “These were promising words, but that hope has vanished. Since your testimony a month ago, nothing has changed.”
Elsewhere in the letter, Norenberg writes that OFA survivors are “in crisis,” with many suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and emotional trauma caused by sexual abuse and “the unconscionable way they were treated during the OFA ‘investigations’ and during the subsequent cruel coverup. Some are even grappling with thoughts of suicide.
“Your ongoing and intentional refusal to care for these survivors is not mere neglect; you are perpetuating an ongoing life-threatening emergency that demands immediate intervention and leadership.”
In the letter, Norenberg “demands” that Fagan take a series of steps, including establishing a team to contact OFA survivors and offer them the mental health services “they should have received years ago.”
Norenberg has volunteered to lead the team.
Coast Guard response
On Thursday night the Coast Guard released the following statement:
“Ensuring a safe and supportive workplace is central to the Coast Guard’s continuing effort to strengthen our culture, become intolerant of harmful behaviors, and ensure accountability and transparency. The Service remains keenly focused on providing the workplace climate that all of our members expect and deserve.
“The Coast Guard wants every victim who needs help to reach out for support. Any member or former member can go to a Vet Center for treatment, and be seen the same day, without the need for any documentation of Military Sexual Trauma (MST). The CG-6095 form is not required by the Vet Center, or to file for disability compensation benefits. MST-related services are available for most veterans, including those who received an Other Than Honorable discharge or served for fewer than two years. Veterans can contact a Veterans Benefits Administration MST outreach coordinator at their local VA regional office who can help file an MST-related disability compensation claim.
“While the Service wants every victim to get support, we are also mindful that victims are not all the same and all have different experiences and desires. Some Fouled Anchor victims have expressly stated their desire to not be contacted about their case again by the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard is also limited in its ability to reach out to individuals involved in past cases to avoid conflicting with an ongoing investigation by the Office of the Inspector General. However, if any Coast Guard victim, from Fouled Anchor or otherwise, is in need of care, they are encouraged to reach out to their servicing Sexual Assault Response Coordinator (SARC) or Victim Advocate Program Specialist (VAPS).”
b.hallenbeck@theday.com
<strong id="strong-0da998f069ea8ec82ebef25ec265bed2">Shannon Norenberg letter</strong>
July 10, 2024
Admiral Linda Fagan
Commandant, U.S. Coast Guard
2703 Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE
Washington, DC 20593
Subject: I Am Not Resigning From My Position As Coast Guard Academy SARC
Dear Admiral Fagan,
In the weeks since I blew the whistle on my role in the Coast Guard's coverup of Operation Fouled Anchor (OFA), the intolerable condition of the trampled survivors remains unchanged. As the current Sexual Assault Response Coordinator (SARC) at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, I am writing to you directly about this critical issue and asking for your immediate help.
The OFA survivors – our fellow Coast Guard members – are in crisis. Many are suffering from severe PTSD and debilitating emotional trauma caused not only by the sexual abuse they endured while students at the Academy, but also by the unconscionable way they were treated during the OFA "investigations" and during the subsequent cruel coverup. Some are even grappling with suicidal ideation. Your ongoing and intentional refusal to care for these survivors is not mere neglect; you are perpetuating an ongoing, life-threatening emergency that demands immediate intervention and leadership.
Every day that you refuse to acknowledge and assist these survivors, you are actively endangering the lives and well-being of those you swore to protect. This letter is a desperate plea for you to refocus your attention on these survivors and take immediate, concrete steps to provide them with the critical medical care and support they urgently need.
Admiral Fagan, over the past six months, I have repeatedly heard you speak of your intention to simply "move this organization forward" when questioned about OFA. You seem to believe that you can move forward without reckoning with the past. I must emphasize that it is impossible to move this organization forward without correcting the grave injustices intentionally directed at the OFA survivors.
The wounds inflicted on the survivors of OFA by the Coast Guard are deep and festering, affecting not only the survivors but the entire fabric of our organization. True progress can only come through accountability, transparency, and concrete actions to right these wrongs. We cannot outrun our past; we must confront it, learn from it, and make amends to those we have wronged.
One month ago, I sat behind you as you testified before Senators Blumenthal and Johnson. You committed to "full transparency" and pledged to ensure that OFA survivors could avail themselves of veterans benefits and receive the support they're entitled to. These were promising words, but that hope has vanished. Since your testimony a month ago, nothing has changed.
You have taken no action to help these survivors or alleviate their suffering. You have done no outreach to OFA survivors, taken no steps to provide them with necessary paperwork or assistance, and you continue to refuse to hold anyone accountable for the coverup of OFA. This is an emergency, Admiral Fagan. People are suffering. Yet you do nothing, except keep busy with other, apparently "more important" matters while you wait for people to stop paying attention to the suffering of the survivors of OFA.
The Coast Guard prides itself on its core values of Honor, Respect, and Devotion to Duty. By neglecting and betraying the survivors of OFA, you are violating not just our most sacred obligations, but the very core values that define us as a service. When our brave Coasties are injured in the line of duty, do you deny them medical care and VA benefits? The survivors of OFA are no different. Some of these survivors were asleep in their beds in the barracks at the Academy when they were attacked and raped by fellow Coasties. They didn't ask for that. No one asks to be sexually abused.
Every day you delay in alleviating the suffering of the survivors of OFA is another day that you fail in your most basic duty to those you are supposed to lead, and it is another day that you betray the values you claim to uphold. In order to immediately address this crisis, I demand that you take the following immediate actions:
1. Immediately establish a dedicated team to conduct outreach to all OFA survivors.
I volunteer to lead this OFA Survivor Outreach Team.
2. Order the OFA Survivor Outreach Team to immediately contact all of the OFA survivors. Each survivor should be offered the comprehensive support, resources, and mental health care services they should have received years ago.
3. Create a transparent, fast-track process for OFA survivors to access their complete case information, investigative files, and any related documents or records in the possession of the Coast Guard they may need for benefits or closure.
4. Offer each OFA survivor the opportunity to complete a form CG-6095 (Victim Reporting Preference Statement) that they were wrongfully denied during the coverup.
5. Immediately and properly enter all OFA cases into the Defense Sexual Assault Incident Database (DSAID), as required by Coast Guard policy and federal law.
Admiral Fagan, in considering whether or not to care for these survivors of Coast Guard Academy sexual assault, I ask you to consider your legacy as Commandant of the Coast Guard. Do you want to go down in history as the Commandant who trampled on injured Coast Guard members as part of a sexual abuse coverup? Or do you want to be remembered as the Commandant who had the courage and integrity to right these wrongs?
As the SARC at the Coast Guard Academy, my first and foremost duty is to help survivors of sexual assault at the Academy. I am required by Coast Guard policies to help survivors who are current Academy students, as well as those survivors who are former students at the Academy. Taking care of these people is my primary responsibility, and I intend to faithfully fulfill my duties to these survivors.
I have been on paid leave since I blew the whistle last month, but I have now returned to my post at the Academy. Until the survivors of Coast Guard Academy sexual abuse receive the support and resources they need, I will not resign, and will not sign anyresignation paperwork, as Coast Guard legal has requested of me. Instead, I will continue to serve dutifully in my role as the Coast Guard Academy SARC, as I have for the past more than 11 years, but now focusing on finally assisting the survivors of OFA.
This is not just my job; it's my moral obligation. I stand ready to fulfill this duty, but I need your commitment and action to make it possible. The survivors of sexual assault at the Coast Guard Academy must no longer be forgotten or neglected. They are my primary concern, and they should be yours as well.
Sincerely,
Shannon Norenberg
Sexual Assault Response Coordinator
U.S. Coast Guard Academy
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