Finally!!! I applied for my Q clearance (DOE’s equivalent of top secret) in April of 2006. Two years and five months later, I just received an email saying I can go pick up my new badge on Tuesday. Score one for the good guys! I think part of the reason it took so long was because of all the pot I admitted to smoking in college.
Next step is to finish my masters in explosives, which should be done, sans project, in December. That’s when the real fun starts. 
Congratulations!
Am I to understand that you have explosive homework?
I’m already done with all my explosives specific courses, and the homework isn’t really that exciting. In the field, on the other hand, it’s a blast! 
w00!
I’ve got a buddy who works over at the Waterways Experiment Station, which has a Blast Engineering lab. He designs blast-resistant buildings, and loves it. He was one of the first forensics engineers on the scene at Oklahoma City, because of his research.
I think any guy would jump at the chance to blow things up for a living.
Nah. More likely because they ran out of budget and couldn’t do more clearances until the next FY came through. I’ve seen it happen, no foolin’.
Stranger
Didn’t the fiscal year just start?
Does “Q” refer to Quiller Memorandum?
Congratulations!
Enjoy…
Your neighbors will have some experiences to relate. 2.5 years. Sigh. I know they take a long time, but darn. that is a long time. OTOH, I have seen Secret clearances take 3 years-and be granted. Go figure.
So, does this mean that you get to work on that cool car with the ejector seat?
October 1 for the gov’t.
Excellent! So phase 1 of Operation Mole is complete!
Sweet! Congratulations! Now I can tell you and I won’t have to kill you.
Congratulations! Enjoy your victory!
Did they include a briefing that mentioned that they prefer you not to discuss in in public your level of clearance? This includes things like announcing it on a public message board.
I wonder if I’ve met him. I used to do a lot of testing for blast-resistant structures at EMRTC. Of our structural testing, we were split between testing new designs (the most notable being the new ATF headquarters, and testing of retrofits of structures to withstand terrorist blasts. Parking garages, bridges (those were fun, we were testing suspension bridge cables, so had to load them with huge blocks of steel), you name it, we tested it. If I don’t end up getting into weapons design, that’ll be my next most likely career choice. It’s a lot more morally satisfying, but not nearly as much fun.
We also did a lot of training of first responders in a program called Incident Response to Terrorist Bombings. We trained a lot of firefighters and police officers who responded to Oklahoma City, and unfortunately lost about 20 firefighters on 9/11. That was a fun program. I worked in the carpenter shop when I first started, and we’d build two to three houses a week to set up near a 500 pound car bomb. That test series also showed the students the effects of pipe bombs, letter bombs, and briefcase bombs. Good stuff.
Probably not, but I did meet John Stapp before he died, who’s group was the originator of Murphy’s Law. He was also the first guy to go faster than the speed of sound, was dubbed the fastest guy in the world. His sled track tested the amount of acceleration and deceleration a body could withstand (first on monkeys, and then on himself). A lot of his work was geared towards designing ejector seats for airplanes, and they did a lot of testing on five-point harnesses.
As stated, Oct 1.
I’m not British. 
I haven’t had the briefing yet. The thought crossed my mind before posting, but then I realized that just about every single person I work with, for, around, or by has a ‘Q’. It’s just about given, and since we’re allowed to wear our badges in non secure areas on lab property that clearly show the clearance level, I didn’t think it would be a big deal. Not to mention that, in my line of work, it would be pretty much impossible to proceed without it; once somebody knows what I do, it’d be pretty obvious that I had or was working on my clearance. Hopefully I don’t have to ask the mods to disappear this thread after the briefing. 
Huh?
Thanks to everybody for the congrats, I appreciate it!
It’s possible. If you ever get over to Vicksburg to that lab, let me know and I’ll drive over for lunch or something.
