The Maintenance Monkey

A tourist walked into a pet store and was looking at the animals on display. While he was there, a Chief Warrant Officer (CWO) from the local airfield walked in and said to the shopkeeper, "I'll take a maintenance monkey, please."

The man nodded, went to a cage at the side of the store and took out a monkey. He put a collar and leash on the animal and handed it the CWO, saying, "That'll be $5,000." The CWO paid and left with the monkey.

Surprised, the tourist went to the shopkeeper and said, "That was a very expensive monkey. Most of them are only a few hundred dollars. Why did that one cost so much?" The shopkeeper answered, "Ah, that maintenance monkey, he can rig aircraft flight controls, score 95 on any academic maintenance test and perform the duties of any Maintenance Officer with no back talk or complaints. It's well worth the money."

The tourist spotted a monkey in another cage. "That one's even more expensive - $10,000! What does it do?" "Oh, that one is a "Maintenance Supervisor" monkey; it can instruct at all levels of maintenance, supervise maintenance personnel at the unit or Wing level, and even does most of the paperwork. A very useful monkey indeed," replied the shopkeeper.

The tourist looked around a little longer and found a third monkey in a cage. The price tag read, "$100,000". The shocked tourist exclaimed, "That one costs more than all the others put together! What in the world could it do?"

"Well, I've never actually seen him do anything but drink beer and leer at the women, but his papers say he's a Pilot!"

This page was last updated July 06, 2009

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