Coast Guard Investigating Swastika Found In Training Facility
The U.S. Coast Guard announced it’s opening an investigation into a swastika found in the restroom at its primary recruit training center in New Jersey.
According to the Washington Post, a Coast Guard instructor discovered the hand-drawn swastika on Thursday evening at the Cape May training center and reported it. Adm. Kevin Lunday, the Coast Guard commandant, flew to Cape May on Saturday after being informed about the swastika. Lunday addressed 900 recruits and staff members upon arrival, and triggered an investigation into the swastika.
“Following discovery of a hate symbol drawn on a bathroom wall in a building at Training Center Cape May, the Coast Guard immediately referred the matter to the Coast Guard Investigative Service (CGIS) for investigation – consistent with long-standing Coast Guard policy,” a U.S. Coast Guard spokesperson said in a statement. “This hate symbol was immediately removed.”
Lunday also released a statement to the Post addressing the incident. “Anyone who adheres to or advances hate or extremist ideology — get out. Leave. You don’t belong in the United States Coast Guard, and we reject you,” Lunday’s statement said. “We will not allow anyone to put a stain of hate on our United States Coast Guard.”
You know, I’d be more inclined to believe Lunday if it wasn’t only four months ago when the Coast Guard came under fire for downgrading swastikas from a hate symbol to “potentially divisive” in its workplace harassment manual. At the time, Lunday said that “claims that the U.S. Coast Guard will no longer classify swastikas, nooses or other extremist imagery as prohibited symbols are categorically false,” though the language remained in the manual.
As a result, Sens. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) and Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) placed a hold on Lunday’s nomination to become the Coast Guard’s commandant. The language was eventually reverted to its original text, and the Senators removed their hold on Lunday’s nomination.
While the Coast Guard is not under the command of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, it has made several moves to align with his “warrior culture.” Former Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Linda Fagan was the first woman to lead a branch of the U.S. military, and she was fired on Trump’s first day in office. Her big offense? Promoting diversity initiatives and becoming the face of the Fouled Anchor sex abuse scandal. While the Fouled Anchor investigation was conducted and suppressed by Fagan’s predecessor during the first Trump administration, nothing is more American than letting a woman take the blame for a man’s mistakes.
So yeah, the Coast Guard has been moving in an incredibly suspect manner since the Trump administration took over.
Even if it eventually walked back the move, simply putting the classification of the swastika up for debate made an incident like this inevitable. The swastika has been a symbol of hate for nearly a century. Did the Coast Guard feel it was suddenly too “woke” to call it what it is? The only people who find swastikas anything less than a hate symbol tend to be the ones who believe in what they represent.
SEE ALSO:
Coast Guard Clarifies ‘Hate’ Policy On Nooses And Swastikas
Trump Rescinds Biden Order Tracking Misconduct Of Federal Officers
