The federal government is trying to reverse a recent judgment favoring a Department of Defense whistleblower who drew attention to overcharges on Lockheed Martin military contracts.

The chief of the Office of Personnel Management has asked the Merit Systems Protection Board to reverse its recent decision in favor of Ken Pedeleose, an industrial engineer with the Defense Contract Management Agency. Agency engineers and inspectors are the Pentagon’s front-line defense against contractor fraud.

The life of a whistleblower is hardly the glamorous stuff of Hollywood. Often it’s a life spent looking over one’s shoulder, hoping for small victories while withstanding reprisals.

What’s so unusual about the plight of Ken Pedeleose, an industrial engineer and whistleblower at the Defense Contract Management Agency, is that he scored a big victory last month from a federal mediation panel in a little-noticed ruling by the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board.