"White" is summoned to the front office and informed of the commander’s decision to nominate White for a quarterly award at the end of the next quarter.

"This should give you enough time to study the awards packages of past winners to figure out what the board wants," says the commander. "Think seriously about performing a few extra duties around here to beef that package up."

White does as the commander suggests, and at the appropriate time provides to the commander a list of accomplishments for the quarter. A week later, White is again summoned to the commander’s office and given the awards package to read.

"Piece of cake," says the commander. "I think you have more than a fighting chance to bring home the bacon!"

At first the commander’s enthusiasm is unavoidably infectious, but then White begins to look closely at the specific points made in the awards package. There is no doubt the commander has ‘massaged’ the truth on some of the bullet statements, and in one or two cases the truth has been stretched to the ripping point. White points out these problems to the commander, and the commander assures White "everything will be taken care of."

White goes into the interview for the organizational-level award believing the commander cleaned up the problems in the nomination package, but that belief is quickly destroyed when one of the board members asks White a question based on one of the problematic bullet statements. After the interview, White reports this persistent problem to the commander, who again promises to "take care of it."

Two days later, the commander relays the information that White won at the organizational level, and will compete the following week at the base level.

"Good luck," says the commander to White, "it’s all up to you now."

The next week, White wins at the base level, but this time it is impossible to tell from the questions whether or not the package still contains the problematic bullet statements.