When One Joins The US Armed Forced...

I was wondering if one joins the Service, is a background check performed? i mean , at some point, these young men and women will be dealing with some sensitive technologies, documents, etc. So, how does the military handle this when it seems they’ll take anybody? - Jinx :confused:

On your application documents you have to list whether you’ve ever been arrested for anything more serious than a speeding violation. IIRC enlisted inductees get no more thorough background checking than that. Later, if they’re assigned a post or rank that requires access to sensitive information, then they’ll have to apply for a security clearance which is when the real probing begins. That’s just for the enlisted… all officers have to have at least a secret clearance from day 1, and would have to apply for an upgrade to top secret if they had a reason.

The US Armed Forces do not take “anybody.”

The rigor of the background check depends on the level of security clearance the sevice member needs to have, but I have been interviewed more than once about kids I’ve known. At a minimum, a criminal background check is done before enlistment. When my son enlisted there was a huge deal over the fact that he had been cited for littering*, as a juvenile. The charge had been dismissed but we still had to get documents stating that it had been resolved.

*insert Alice’s Restaurant joke here

First term enlistees will get an ENTNAC - ENTry National Agency Check. I’m not sure how in-depth it is; I believe it is just a check of databases from various agencies to see if your name pops up anywhere.

The police department where I work is regularly contacted for background checks on any current or former resident who is enlisting. If they are going into more sensitive areas, investigators will come to town to interview everyone who knows the applicant.

Soon after I moved in here, my new next door neighbor’s son was in Top Gun School. ( who the hell knew it was real ?? Did they all look like Tom Cruise?? ).

One day, two very very serious looking men showed up at my door. They showed me their I.D., which made ME feel very serious. They were from Military Investigative Department of somesuch. They wanted to know everything I knew about the neighbor’s son. Never having met the guy, I told them…nothing. They didn’t like that, oddly. I said look fellows, I can prove I just bought the house, and you’re telling me he’s already BEEN in Top Gun for a while.

They left.

Apparently he got his Clearance anyway, and has been flying out of Germany ever since.

Yeah. They check. I must say, I know it’s a typo but as a serious left-winger, I about choked when I read the OP title, which as of right now still reads, " When One Joines The US Armed Forced".

:smiley:

Cartooniverse

Cartooniverse: They may have been from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (old name: Naval Investigative Service). The FBI sometimes (often?) assists in such investigations.

A thorough credit check is also part of the screening process for positions involvolving sensitive information, money or property.

Similar checks are involved for US Federal Civil Service.

Don’t they still finger print recruits and send them off for an FBI check? They did in '85 when I went in.
My friend, who also work for me for a while, join the Army and went into Cryptology. The Army called me to verify his background. They spent about 10-12 minutes on the phone. I was not the only person they called so they do seem to do as much background checking, as the job requires.

Jim

Cryptology is one of the specialties that requires a more thorough background check as one must hold, IIRC, a Top Secret security clearance to work in that field.

I recall, that during my Basic Training (Summer 85, Ft. McClellan, AL), we had one private whose background caught up with him about halfway through the cycle. Was handed over to civilian deputies for extradition to wherever he had something pending. I would suppose that 20 years later the checking out is much faster.

.

So if investigators want to interview you do you have to talk to them?

You don’t. It does slow down the person’s clearance though, because the BI specialist has to go get additional people.

The investigator will show you credentials, and can show you the release the person under review has signed. The investigator will also give you a spiel about the scope and necessity not to lie to the government in your responses.

If you are a named person (someone who knows the investigatee well), they should have given you the courtesy of a heads-up.

If you are just geographically desirable, they just want to check for reasonable behavior and all-around niceness.

Oh, yes indeedy. And Monty, I am sure they weren’t FBI. That I woulda remembered. ( See below ) Very likely it was the other Naval group you mentioned.

Dad had background screening before he went to work for the US Gov’t. The job he was being offered involved being granted Q Clearance. The check took over 6 months. Our phones were tapped 24/7 during that time.

There were two things from that period of time that remain in my memory. The first is that apparently they were very unhappy that they could only document the people who knew him back to the age of 8. ( Those darned Nazis went and burned up everything documenting the beginning of his life in Germany. :rolleyes: ).

The other is that they called a long-time friend of Dad and Mom’s on the phone. This gentleman was my former Vice-Principal from Jr High. ( yeah…that was a bit ticklish sometimes… ). They called and said, " Hi I’m Agent Smith from the Philadelphia FBI office and I’d like to ask you some questions about Mr. Cartooniverse". He hung up. :smiley: They called back. He hung up again. They called back a third time, threatening him. He informed them calmly that he was in the school business, that kids sometimes got his home #, and that regardless of what business HE was in, any swingin’ dick could call up and say they were with the FBI. If they wanted to interview him, they’d best send two agents with ID’s that looked real to his home. They did just that, and of course he let them in after calling the Philadelphia Field Office of the FBI and checking out who they were. Told em everything they wanted to know.

Every few years, our phone service would get shitty again and we’d find out they were updating his security clearance. :slight_smile:

I don’t know what the big deal is.

Morticians work around crypts all the time and I bet they don’t have Top Secret clearance.

What ???

:smiley:

My son enlisted in the Army, Military Intelligence. The preliminary back ground checks took months. It was complicated by the fact he told them that when he was in high school he dated an exchange student from Australia. His file was flagged as having involvement with a foriegn national, they really put it through the wringer. They questioned him three times over six months (I think just to see if his facts changed). There was also psych screening. He was finally accepted, and on the second day of basic broke his foot and was discharged.

When I enlisted in '80 for the infantry they just did a common criminal record search of the FBI (NCIC), and the states and municipalities I listed that I had lived in. They probably figured if you were enlisting in the infantry it was a given the mental institutions would have heard about you already!

Cartooniverse:

Friend of mine back in DLI used to work, back in civilian life, as a mortician’s assistant (or some such; no license required). Of course, we all nicknamed him Mort. He hated that name for some reason.

Are you sure of this?
My impression was that the Nazis (and german officials in general) documented everything!, rather than destroying documents.

I know that they left extensive records even on concentration camp activities, some of which were used against the people in charge during the War Crimes Tribunals. And I recently saw that an extensive archive of such records was now opened to the public, where previously only authorized researchers could access it.

Yes I am, unless my father, and both grandparents lied to me my entire life.

The Nazis were dedicated and relentless documentarians when it came to their own hideous activities ( cue Leni Riefenschtahl, stage left ). They believed they would last a thousand years and wanted proof to endure of what they had “accomplished”.

They burned all the synogogues they could get their hands on, including any Torahs that were not gotten away in time. In those shuls were a lot of records.

I have done extensive searches regarding my father. The small town where he was born still exists, as does the larger town/city where they lived until they fled in 1938. There are no records extant of jews who lived there prior to the war.

I don’t have a way to cite either my dead grandparents nor my dead father so I suppose you can call bullshit if you need to. However, spend some time perusing the Internet looking for records of jews or synogogues in Germany that escaped burning or demolition and lemme know how you do. If you know someone born in Germany before the end of the second World War who is a Jew, find their birth certificate.

Of course, as long as the guy pushing shopping carts at WalMart has never been arrested, give that boy a rifle!