Happiest day of my life was when I turned my back on that and got into the commercial sector.
I could tell my wife where I was; within reason, I could tell her what I was working on; I could take part in a lounge hypnotist act if I chose without clearing it in advance and having a DoD rep in attendance.; I didn’t have to worry about my credit rating slipping and removing my clearance and thus my job as well; I didn’t have to deal with friends/neighbors/relatives being visited by gov’t officials asking very personal questions (NO, I’m NOT about to be indicted for some federal offense, honest!).
Don’t get me wrong, it was a rewarding career in many ways. But I’m very glad I’m out of all that.
No, the fact that it’s on my badge isn’t any kind of secret “technically” or otherwise. I’m not sure where you even get this idea. It is recommended that we not wear badges outside of work, other than during visits to other campuses or to client facilities (where they are seen by all manner of members of the general public), but there’s no penalty for doing so. In any case, not only is the clearance on my resume, the company has my resume on an “internal” Website that is accessible to the world. Anyone who knows the domain name of the Intranet can see who has what clearances and so forth; since all of this information on resumes is vetted before publication there’s nothing that comprises a security leak.
I’m not clear why you think this is a “national security issue” or that anyone responding to the thread doesn’t take security seriously, and indeed, it is (in my experience) the people at the top of the food chain with the highest clearances who are the most cavilier regarding the control and dispersal of information. For those who have them, clearances are just another bureaucratic detail of professional work, and should a topic come up that veers into your area of secure knowledge, you simply decline to comment on it. “Sorry, I can’t talk about that. How about those Dodgers, though? Do they suck or what?”
Oh, my, that reminds me of Jack. The first time I met him was while smoking outside the SCIF at Homestead’s elephant cage. The woman in charge of badges* came out for a smoke and he took off his badge, offered it to her, and said, “[Name], I need to give this to you. You see, I’m in love with Captain [Name]. I fall asleep every night with a hard on, dreaming about curling up next to that sweet, cuddly old man. I know we’d be excellent lovers. He’d give me the tender carresses I need.”
Holy hell. I was an innocent boot E4, don’t ask don’t tell was brand new, and Tailhook was off in the distance. I thought I was witnessing a psychological break down until she started giggling.
*I know she had an official title but damned if I can remember; I’ve blocked out a lot of my navy experiences.
Not exactly true though, eh? The information itself is often reported in newspapers. It’s just a matter of preventing others from connecting the obvious dots.
As a former Navy submarine officer, I had a TS/SCI codeword clearance. As I recall, the whole background investigation took over two years.
Sea story: when we were at sea on a deployment “up North,” our Executive Officer wanted all of us junior officers to actually sit down and read the reams of classified reports related to our mission.* It wasn’t terribly convenient having them all locked in his stateroom safe, so they were all stashed in one of the wardroom lockers with a flimsy combination lock. The locker could have been pried open with a fork. :dubious: I guess the command wasn’t too concerned about it since, being at sea, the locker was only accessible to crewmembers, and none of them were going anywhere. However, every time we read the reports, and for that matter, when we wrote our own, we had to hang signs on the wardroom doors warning crewmembers without a TS/SCI clearance to keep out.
*Some of these reports were UK documents, and were labeled “Most Secret.” I recall the covers had a design and a color scheme that just screamed out to be noticeable.
I was a secret when I worked for the Air Force doing sateliite meteorology. Five years, everything we did was unclassified. I’ve always wondered why we needed it. Maybe just the fact of where I was working from.
I had a clearance from 1986-88 when I was working for the Logistics Supply company that supported the US Army base on Kwajalein Atoll. I liked Kwaj. I wouldn’t mind going back again.
For 13 years when I worked for a defense contractor. Had to pass an additional background check to get access to NUWC and board the SSN Annapolis for some sea trials of new equipment.
I recall the covers had a design and a color scheme that just screamed out to be noticeable.