How many of you old Navy vets ever visit the Goat Locker@ GOATLOCKER.ORG. For those who don't know, this is a website for Navy Chiefs. I hadn't been on that site in many years but hit it up today out of boredom. I discovered two things of significance to me. The first was that a chief I went to a Navy school with in San Diego in 1968 was killed in enemy action in 1969 with the Riverine Force in Nam. The second thing was that a man who served with me as a second class was just selected for promotion to Master Chief.

Any Navy vet ought to check it out, especially any chiefs. For you other Navy vets, there is a useful link to a site where a list of ships and/or commands show times and appropriate awards you are entitled to but maybe didn't receive while you were in.

Thanks master chief. I'll check it out.

I'll pass that along to my son, Master Chief. He never made chief, but a fine Master Chief (is there any other kind?) was a mentor he speaks of to this day, many years later.

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Oh well, what the hell.

I'm going to say it, YES, there is another kind. A Master Chief, in fact our Command Master Chief, was dating an early 20ish E3 off of a ship in Norfolk. He flaunted it, brought her up to command functions, even. He was invited to retire... So YES, there is another kind, sad to say...

While we're at it, the last ship I was stationed on, there was a "Chief" that always stayed in berthing, an SH, if I recall, the other Chiefs made sure to warn me to lock my locker and rack locker up always. He stayed there because he was on restriction. Eventually, this E7 became an E1 and was escorted off of the ship in plain dungarees by our MAA Senior Chief, with a dishonorable discharge. He was a "fellow Chief" that got caught stealing from his brothers in Chief's berthing.

They don't initiate Chiefs anymore, haven't for a number of years. Making Chief in our Navy has been reduced to completing some extra NKO courses and a bit of extra PT, then the E6 becomes an E7, same as any other service... In fact, a MCPON directive banned the use of the word initiation several years ago...