I feared the Coast Guard would not take me seriously because, “oh that's just locker room talk, you're fine.”

** 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. **

Hey, I've got a story. I'm active duty E-5. I have two different situations.

One happened 4 years ago that I never reported, the other 2 years ago and I was lucky to have the command I did.

The 2nd situation happened in a port call (we all love Costa Rica, right?). My supply warrant officer sexually harassed two female members of my cutter, I was one of those two. The other woman that was harassed came forward the night of/morning after, and command took him right off the ship. That incident was investigated and he was sentenced to a captain's mast. If you notice in this story, I had not come forward until 2 days before his captain's mast. I was scared to. I was an E-4 and he was a highly respected warrant officer of 20+ years. One of our chiefs had asked me while a few of us were out in a port call where the mast was to take place, if I'd heard of him harassing any other females in my berthing. I hesitated but thought of my first situation which I'll get to in a moment and the two young female non-rates that had just reported. I told him he had sent me explicit text messages while in the Costa Rica port call, and even dropped his hotel room key in my backpack when basically everyone on the ship was at the same hotel pool. This chief reported to our command and they were able to launch another investigation which led to this warrant officer going to admiral's mast. I'm sharing this story first because I got lucky with that command and the reason I reported it thinking of those two young new female non-rates was because of this second situation.

I was a 19-year-old female non-rate on a black hull. My time aboard this cutter was difficult to say the least. Qual difficulties trying (and failing) to fit in with my department, personal issues, etc. While I was in the midst of some of the worst weeks and months on board where I just kept failing at my quals, a relatively new to the unit MK1 [REDACTED] decided to "befriend me" and take me under his wing. This MK1 would come out and talk to me at the smoke pit and listen to me vent about my little 19-year-old problems. This transitioned into him giving me compliments ranging from "your hair looks good today" to "I bet your body would look great in a bikini." He was still listening and giving me advice at the same time so of course I trusted him as a naive 19-year-old who was incredibly lonely at her first duty station. He ended up inviting me to go fishing on his boat with him, and thinking "oh he's just being nice," I accepted. However, this fishing trip came with a condition per se. He said, "make sure you wear a bikini."

The entire trip all he really wanted to talk about was "how pretty I was" and "how good I looked in the bikini". He offered underage me alcohol at least one point. At the end of the day, he dropped me back off at the barracks but would continue to make inappropriate comments to me or invite me on the boat for the next 10 or so months I was on the cutter. I never came forward as I was a non-rate and this was an E-6, and I also feared that no one would take me seriously because "oh that's just locker room talk, you're fine." I was already disliked on the cutter due to my difficulties getting qualified and I didn't want that to be another reason why.

That non-rate situation was the whole reason I came forward and reported the officer on my second ship. I was too scared to as a non-rate, and I wanted to show the new generations to come forward and not take inappropriate behavior lying down. My entire philosophy behind my leadership as an E-5 is protecting those under me and making sure they know that someone has their back no matter what.

Thank you for reading my two stories, and I am so sorry to all the women and men that did not get the happy ending like I was given as an E-4.