The Coast Guard Investigative Service turned my sexual assault around on me, then made my life so miserable I gave up the fight just to make it stop.

** This anonymous U.S. Coast Guard Survivor Testimonial was originally submitted to “The Pettiest Officer of the U.S. Coast Guard” on Facebook in May of 2024 and re-published by MLAA. MLAA does not know the identity of the author and has not verified any of the claims or allegations made in this testimonial. Light formatting changes for readability, or redactions for PII may have been applied before publishing. **

Thank you for being a voice. I'd like to share my story.

For 22 years, I've felt ashamed and alone. In 2002, during my first deployment, fresh out of boot camp, we pulled into a foreign port where drinking was allowed at 18. The command allowed us to follow the local law. Many of us went out drinking together, got hotel rooms, and swam in the pool. I was heavily intoxicated and my hotel roommate took me to our room. I passed out as she left to go party more and she left our door propped open. I woke up to someone having sex with me but I was so intoxicated I passed right back out. He was holding my hands and I couldn't fight or even speak.

I was flown home after reporting the Sexual Assault to my command. I went through weeks of reliving the pain of telling my story for the Coast Guard Investigative Service to turn it around on me, breaking me to the point of giving up the fight just to make it stop. They asked me about my sex life, they asked me about past boyfriends. They told me I had sex with him on my own and later found out he was married so I wanted to get him back. I was made out to be a liar. I was a nonrate and he was a married 2nd class petty officer. I'll never know who CGIS was trying to protect, but I do know it wasn't me.

They screened me for alcoholism, ran me through captain's mast with a packed room of my peers, reduced my rank, and docked my pay. No counseling, no support. Just a 19-year-old girl who felt broken and alone and had to continue walking around that base for 2 years.