A drawing of a swastika appeared at the US Coast Guard's primary recruit training center in New Jersey and was subsequently removed, the service confirmed on Monday, adding that the incident has been referred for further investigation and that it condemned the display of hate symbols.
"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 longstanding Coast Guard policy," a US Coast Guard spokesperson said in a statement. "This hate symbol was immediately removed."
The Washington Post reported earlier on Monday that a Coast Guard instructor discovered the swastika drawing on Thursday evening on a men's bathroom wall at the Cape May training center in southern New Jersey.
The swastika was adopted by Germany's Nazi Party and became a symbol of far-right and white supremacist hatred.
The Coast Guard commandant, US Admiral Kevin Lunday, traveled to the recruit training center and spoke to about 900 recruits and staff members to address the incident, the service said.
"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 said in a statement shared by the Coast Guard.
Coast Guard backtracks 'potentially divisive' swastika designation
The swastika's drawing incident follows the Coast Guard's November 2025 controversy, where it had attempted to recategorize swastikas from hate symbols to "potentially divisive" in its workplace harassment regulations, sparking backlash from the Jewish community.
“The swastika and the noose aren’t ‘potentially divisive.’ They are explicit symbols of antisemitism and hate,” Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, wrote in a post to X/Twitter at the time. “Treating them as anything less than hate symbols is a dangerous mistake.”
However, despite Lunday's reassurance that swastikas were indeed prohibited in all Coast Guard “workplaces, facilities, and assets," the newly coined term remained in the updated regulations.
The Jerusalem Post reported in December 2025 that, following continued backlash from Jewish groups about the language remaining, the Coast Guard once again amended the policy's language, formally returning swastikas to their previous designation.