"Chiefly Wisdom"

A young LCDR meets with a Chief in his office. The LCDR asks,

"Chief, how do you run such an efficient shop? Are there any tips you can give to me?"

"Well," says the Chief, "the most important thing is to surround yourself with intelligent people."

The LCDR frowns and says,

"But how do I know if the people around me are really intelligent?"

The Chief takes a sip of coffee and says,

"Oh, that's easy. You just ask them to answer an intelligence riddle."

Then the Chief yells out to one of his First Class Petty Officers.

The First Class walks into the room, "Yes, Chief what can I do for you?"

The Chief smiles and says,

"Answer me this. Your mother and father have a child. It is not your brother and it is not your sister. Who is it?"

Without pausing for a moment, the First Class answers,

"Well, that would be me."

"Yes, Very good. Thanks" says the Chief.

The LCDR goes back to his office and assembles his junior officers and asks them the same question,

"Answer this for me. Your mother and your father have a child. It's not your brother and it's not your sister. Who is it?"

All of the junior officers look at the LCDR in amazement,

"We're not sure, let us get back to you on that one."

The junior officers then have numerous meetings to discuss the question without any resolution.

Finally, they run into the Chief.

The junior officers ask,

"Chief can you answer this for us? Your mother and father have a child and it's not your brother or your sister. Who is it?"

The Chief yells back, "That's easy. It's me!"

All of the officers smile, and say, "Thanks!"

The junior officers schedule a meeting with the LCDR and at that meeting report,

"Sir we found the answer to your question. We did some research and we have the answer to that riddle. It's a Chief!"

The LCDR gets up, and starts screaming at them,

"No, you idiots! It's the First Class!"