About This Site

Greg Peterman retired in 1993 after serving as Command Master Chief at SUBTRAFAC San Diego. Before leaving, he made hard copies of the reference material a CMC accumulates over a career — the kind of documentation every Command Master Chief turns to. A few months into retirement, with the early internet just beginning to take shape, he saw an opportunity.

"There was not much to the internet back then," Greg recalled, "but I thought, why not start a Bulletin Board for Navy Chiefs?" Those first pages were bare HTML with no security, fed through a dial-up connection that started at 300 baud and crept upward through 900, 14.4, and finally 56k by 1997. Word spread through the Chiefs' Mess the old-fashioned way, and the users came.

The bulletin board grew into a proper website. Greg moved it through a series of early web hosts — first prodigy.net, then AOL, then Geocities — before registering goatlocker.org around 1995 or 1996, giving the site its permanent home along with a real Forum and a CPO email database.

With a dedicated domain came contributions from Chiefs around the Navy — history, references, humor, photos, sea stories — and the site kept expanding. In 1997, QMCM(SW) Clint Steed stepped in to help Greg redesign the Goat Locker with a more organized, polished structure. Steed worked alongside Greg for several years, gradually evolving the site. He passed away in 2020.

The Forum became the heart of the community. Members organized Goat Locker Get-Togethers — Chiefs driving long distances just to sit around and talk Navy. Greg made many of those trips himself, building friendships that stretched well beyond the screen.

Among everything on the site, two sections carried particular weight for Greg.

The CPO Lost in the Line of Duty page honored Chief Petty Officers who gave their lives in service. "It was tough every time I had to add another name to that page," he wrote.

The CPO Medal of Honor Recipients page was compiled by BTCS David A. Wright, who spent years assembling the roster. "He worked many years on compiling all that data," Greg noted. "Very detailed and accurate."

Over the years, several Master Chief Petty Officers of the Navy reached out to Greg directly. Their message was consistent: they appreciated having so much historical information gathered in one place.