I was sexually assaulted on my first deployment at our first port of call. My assailant received 30 days of extra duty. I was failed by my command and by the Coast Guard.

** 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. **

My first deployment, I was sexually assaulted on our first port call of that patrol. I didn't know what to do, so I went to someone I trusted and they helped me decide to report it. When I reported it, it came out what happened and that I reported it, and I received terrible backlash from the people the perpetrator was close with.

They tried taking away my qualifications, they tried to find small things to get me in trouble. It took for an O4 to pull me to the side and tell me the qualification they were trying to take was seen as retaliation for me reporting their friend.

When it came to his Mast, they masted him on an alcohol incident, not my assault. They said it was a he said/she said, and that there was no true evidence. After I looked over some of the character witness statements, everyone talked about how my personality went from helpful, cheerful, always friendly to not eating, easily irritable, depressed, and isolating myself. I went to therapy where a therapist, provided by Coast Guard Support, said "the reason this probably happened is because you're an attractive young woman". This absolutely disgusted me. I was depressed for months, I still get angry when I think about everything that has happened.

His punishment was a deduction in pay and rank for 6 months and 30 extra duty days non-negotiable. They allowed him to appeal and they approved his appeal, so he was only given the 30 extra duty days.

There was one OS1 that pushed for me to expedite from the boat because they said it will ruin my career if I stayed, but he was pushing all the females to get off the boat; 5 female OSs left our first year.

The command did not follow policy at all, and even the Coast Guard as a whole did not follow policy. My command kept us together on the boat when we were supposed to get separated from each other during the investigation.

My command allowed him to rank up while under investigation, and by policy he is supposed to be withheld from that. He is not supposed to be stationed anywhere near me, and now he works in the same building as me, just a floor below.

I was failed by my command and by the Coast Guard.