I was not active duty Coast Guard, but my abuser was. His Command protected him & directly endangered my life. I can’t imagine how bad it is for those actually in the service.
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I wanted to share my experience. I was not active duty Coast Guard, but my abuser was, and his command directly endangered me and helped my abuser avoid punishment. I cannot imagine how bad it is for those actually in the service if this is how I was treated. PLEASE KEEP ME ANONYMOUS.
Several years ago (I will leave years out to better protect my identity) I was married to a member on the CGC Munro. During my short marriage, I was physically and sexually abused on multiple occasions including while pregnant. Several times the abuse landed me in the hospital. After one particularly bad incident I reached out to his command via our ombudsman in an attempt to get some help from the coast guard in protecting myself. I wanted to know if they could have him stay late for work that day so l could safely leave to protect myself and my unborn child, I had found a flight and needed a little extra time to packed and arrange getting to the airport.
I was promised by the CO personally and the Chief over the phone that they would come up with an excuse to keep him a few hours late that day to buy myself time to pack and get out, and that they would keep my desperate attempt to leave confidential. Instead, almost immediately after this phone meeting my abuser was told I was planning on leaving that day and authorized to leave early. So what should have been a safe time for me turned into a nightmare.
My abuser came home and beat me so badly I had to go to the hospital, and suffered a miscarriage. The only people aware of my situation were the CO and the Chief that had sat in on the phone call. I have her name in my email records somewhere. After the fact, a member on the boat I knew let me know that the CO directly allowed him to leave and let him know my plan to leave, and although I cannot verify that, he was one of only two people who knew.
I relocated and reached out to someone who connected me with a victim advocate and CGIS. I was extensively interviewed by CGIS, they took videos of me telling my experience, took copy's of the hospital records and photos, and communications found our shared phone records between members of the command and my abuser. They offered me an MPO, and promised that the command would face repercussions for what happened, and my Abuser would be kicked out. I was told the CO would have no control over what punishment was given to my abuser due to his personal involvement in the outcome and further abuse I suffered.
But, NO. Instead, the CO and others helped my abuser transfer to where I had relocated, before his billet was up. There was NOT ONE SINGLE REASON he should have been moved. Not one. He never faced any punishment. No one stepped up to protect me, no one questioned why my abuser was allowed to receive orders just outside of the MPO radius (literally 51 miles) and no one stepped up to help. That CO knew I was being abused, he knew my unborn child was in danger, he saw the photos of the bruises, the hospital reports, the police report. The CO knew I had been to a hospital after being raped.
The CO knew, and not only did he fail to protect me, he helped my abuser follow me.
** 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. **