By KEVIN G. HALL | McClatchy Washington Bureau | Published: May 18, 2021 WASHINGTON (Tribune News Service) A growing debate over the ability of the armed services to investigate sexual assault and harassment provides a backdrop of controversy to President Joe Biden’s commencement address this week at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. It comes amid a high-profile case at the academy. Legislation is being drafted in both chambers of Congress that would put an independent body in charge of investigations into military sex crimes. This would bring changes to all branches of the armed services. Coast Guard leadership had been under scrutiny for more than 18 months after the December 2019 release of a congressional report about mishandling of assault and harassment complaints. The service and its elite rescue swimmer program were also the focus of a yearlong series of stories, “Silenced No More” in 2020 by the Miami Herald and McClatchy.
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After speaking with Admiral Karl L. Schultz, Coast Guard Commandant, U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI), the Chairman of the Armed Services Committee and a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, today announced that Rhode Island will serve as the homeport for two new 270-foot Coast Guard medium-endurance cutters, which will be based out of Naval Station Newport, each with a crew of 100. These Coast Guard cutters are scheduled to arrive in the fall of next year.
The USGC Tahoma (WMEC-908) and USCGC Campbell (WMEC 909), two of the Coast Guard’s fleet of twenty-nine medium-endurance cutters in service, will be coming to Rhode Island from their previous homeport at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in New Hampshire. Both vessels will continue conducting missions pertaining to maritime law enforcement, homeland security, and search and rescue missions in support of Coast Guard operations throughout the Western Hemisphere.
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