It was at the Change of Command ceremony when the outgoing commander handed the new commander three sealed numbered envelopes. The outgoing commander explained, ?Every time you get in trouble, open an envelope, in order?.

The new commander thought it odd, but later that day put the envelopes in his top desk drawer.

It wasn?t long before the brigade commander called the fellow and told him ?Get your butt in my office immediately?. He grabbed envelope numbered 1, ripped it open, pulled out a single piece of paper with ?Blame your predecessor.? So, he went to the Brigade Commander and explained that the trouble was because of the last commander and he would make sure it would never happen again.

It was a while before another problem occurred and he got the call from the Brigade Commander to explain what went wrong. He hastily grabbed envelope number 2, tore it open and read ?Reorganize?. He told the Brigade Commander that he knew of the problem and was in the process of changing the way things were done to assure that the problem would be fixed.

About a year after taking command, he got the third call from the Higher Ups. He pulled out the envelope numbered 3 and read: ?Prepare three envelopes.?