Op-Ed: Link Adm. Lunday's Confirmation to Transparency on SASH

 

Next week, the Senate Commerce Committee is voting on Admiral Kevin Lunday’s nomination to be Coast Guard Commandant. Coast Guard veterans asked the Committee in a November 2025 letter to refrain from confirming Lunday until the service provides all Operation Fouled Anchor documents to Congress. The veterans also asked the Committee to link Lunday’s confirmation to the development and implementation of a plan to hold admirals accountable for failing to address the decades of crime at the US Coast Guard Academy.

The veterans made the ask after watching the Coast Guard rapidly respond to the controversial Washington Post article regarding swastikas and nooses. In less than twelve hours after the story was published, the service altered its course, clearly stating that both were symbols of hate.

The rapid response contrasted sharply to the service’s response to the 2023 CNN reporting on Operation Fouled Anchor, sexual assaults at the Coast Guard Academy. For twenty-eight months, sexual harassment and sexual assault survivors in the Coast Guard waited for accountability. 

In December 2023 Senators Johnson and Blumenthal wrote the Coast Guard a letter stating - “(i)t is clear from this testimony, and the Subcommittee’s inquiry to date, that the Coast Guard’s culture of cover-up has allowed sexual assault and sexual harassment to persist for decades, both at the Academy and in the Coast Guard.”  No one was held accountable.

Last December, Senators Cruz, Cantwell, Baldwin, and Sullivan introduced the Coast Guard Reauthorization Act of 2024. Senator Cruz stated that the legislation “seeks to rectify instances of indefensible treatment endured by some victims of sexual assault in the Coast Guard.” No one was held accountable. 

Last December, the House Oversight and Accountability Committee released a memo on Operation Fouled Anchor stating that the Coast Guard had failed to share all documents relating to the implementation of policies in response to the findings of Operation Fouled Anchor. The lack of accountability continued. 

The November 2025 letter referenced Freedom of Information Act requests that have been filed in the past two years. In one instance, a survivor asked for the list of 43 individuals identified in the Operation Fouled Anchor investigation. The Coast Guard said that the list couldn’t be found. Another survivor asked for a copy of the June 17, 2013 briefing attended by Admirals Papp and Lunday regarding sexual harassment and sexual assault in the service. The Coast Guard responded that the request was too broad in scope or did not specifically identify the records which the requester was seeking. 

The veteran’s letter referenced the recently passed law directing the release of the Epstein files. The Coast Guard veterans asked for the same regarding the Operation Fouled Anchor documents. Both cases involve sexual assault, survivors, and powerful men who hid from accountability. Congress’ action gave Epstein survivors justice and veterans respectfully asked for the same for Coast Guard survivors. 

The past twenty-eight months taught Coast Guard sexual harassment and sexual assault survivors that their service will continue to slow-roll the release of information unless forced to do so.

Linking Admiral Lunday’s confirmation to the sharing of OFA information and the implementation of a plan holding admirals accountable for their failure to act is a forcing function, and it’s one that Coast Guard veterans encourage Congress to support.

K. Denise Rucker Krepp is a Coast Guard veteran, former Maritime Administration Chief Counsel, and former Senior Counsel House Homeland Security Committee.