A Coast Guard Academy official has resigned, alleging that she aided a sexual assault and harassment cover-up designed to prevent congressional leaders and the public from finding out.
Shannon Norenberg, the sexual assault response coordinator at the Coast Guard Academy since 2013, said in a Sunday blog post that the Coast Guard “lied to me” and that she was “absolutely sick” with how the school has handled such cases.
“The Coast Guard lied to me. Worse than that, 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. The Coast Guard deceived me into violating a basic principle of my profession, which is to never lie to victims,” she wrote.
“Although I did not realize what I was doing at the time, I cannot allow this to stand. The least I can offer as an apology to the victims I misled is to tell them the truth, and to ask Congress to finally make these victims whole,” Norenberg said. “What I am certain of, however, is that I can no longer in good conscience be part of an organization that would betray me, betray victims of sexual assault, and betray the system I helped set up to hold perpetrators at the Academy accountable.”
Norenberg served as the Sexual Assault Response Coordinator at the Coast Guard Academy for 11 years.
Her allegations were made ahead of a congressional hearing this week at which Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Linda Fagan is expected to testify. She will appear in front of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations on Tuesday.
The military as a whole has long faced criticism that it does not do enough to prevent and discipline sexual assault and harassment. Last June, CNN reported on a secret investigation into alleged sexual abuse and assault at the academy dubbed “Operation Fouled Anchor.” The findings had been kept from the public for several years, and the investigation included alleged incidents dating back to the late 1980s.
The subcommittee opened a bipartisan investigation into the Coast Guard Academy’s handling of these cases in September 2023.
Norenberg alleged academy leaders sought to hide those findings.
“To prevent Operation Fouled Anchor from being discovered by Congress, Coast Guard leaders deliberately withheld VA military sexual trauma benefits and services from the survivors we were sent around to meet with. Worse, we offered them absolutely nothing to replace those lost benefits and services. We just left the victims to fend for themselves,” she said.
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Norenberg said she was sent on an “apology tour” in 2019 to brief dozens of assault victims about their cases, which had previously been mishandled by academy leadership. Her list of talking points directed her to tell victims that Congress was already fully aware of the operation, which she now knows was not true.
“Another reason I believe the Coast Guard did not offer the victims CG-6095’s is because they did not want the victims to have any proof that their cases even existed or had ever been investigated. We gave them absolutely nothing in writing, and that was deliberate,” Norenberg wrote. “At the time, it did not occur to me that all of this was being done to hide the existence of Operation Fouled Anchor from Congress. That’s because we explicitly told the victims that the Coast Guard had already notified Congress and DHS about OFA and about the victim’s cases.”
The Coast Guard Academy has not responded to the allegations.