Thanks to a relentless investigation by The Navy Times, we know some of the details of the story. The crew of the Lake Erie picked up the goat in 2012 as a joke, a play on the term “goat locker,” which is Navy slang for the chief petty officers’ mess hall.

The joke continued for years and the goat made public appearances alongside the crew. It even posed with the Navy’s chief of naval operations — Adm. Jonathan Greenert — in 2013.

The trouble started when Banigan decided to bring the goat along when the Lake Erie made a trip from Hawaii to San Diego.

California has a lot of laws surrounding the transport of animals. According to state law, a vet must examine incoming goats, then tag the creature and issue its owner a permit. Banigan didn’t do this.

His pet negligence may have cost him his command. It has, at the very least, deprived Lake Erie of its goat.

War Is Boring reached out to Naval Surface Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet — the Navy entity investigating Banigan — to see if it could tell us what Banigan was in trouble for. Was it just the goat or was there more? Was Master Chief Charlie safe?

“There’s not much more I can tell you with regard to this situation as the matter is still under investigation,” Lt. Rick Chernitzer told War Is Boring.

“I can confirm that there was a goat aboard the ship but that the goat is no longer aboard.”

That goat isn’t happy about the situation. Someone opened a Twitter account on May 1 using the goat’s name and began to bleat about the incident.

Charlie now has 1,000 followers.