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I'd imagine you mis-understood the statement... I previously used to do "Physical Security Assessments" of Classified environments. An armed guard was never a

• briandear 8y ago
  > 18 y/o infantryman a security clearance just b/c he asks. Not true at all. Most enlisted infantry don’t have a security clearance. An standard infantry platoon officer typically has only a Secret clearance — only getting Top Secret in special cases and with special units. An 18 year old enlisted Ranger would have a clearance, but some grunt in the 3th Infantry Division almost never has a clearance unless there is a specific mission need. The standard for clearances is based on the need to access classified information. An industry or professional partner working in those areas has a higher risk profile because they are typically accessing or building classified systems — which is a far greater risk than the access afforded to a typical infantry enlisted soldier. clearances for non-military working on DoD projects were, until 2018 handled by OPM which has a significant backlog. So that made OPM clearances much slower. However in 2018, the law was changed to allow DoD to bypass OPM for clearances. As far as ex-military with little or no professional skills, that’s a bit insulting and heavily generalizing. It really depends on their role. If they are physical security, then “professional” skills (as you might define it) aren’t relevant. Their job is physical security. As far as other ex-military with no professional skills, that’s ridiculous. Many ex military have highly developed professional and technical skills. But nobody gets a clearance “because he asks.” An 18 year old kid in the infantry doesn’t get to ask for anything, let alone a clearance. Also, an 18 year old has considerably less background to check than a 35 year old software engineer. I had a clearance from State that took 18 months to process because I had lived in 5 different countries, including countries that weren’t considered “friendly.” But an 18 year old who lived his whole life in the same town — those clearances are issued very quickly. And you should have a 100% need to get a clearance. I am not sure why that would even be worthy of debate.
  • halbritt 8y ago
    When I was in my early 20s, I picked up a confidential clearance in a very short period of time. IIRC it only took a couple of days. The need was very well defined. I required escorted access into a missile lab to service their network equipment. My background was also quite limited. I'd never traveled much at the time, lived in a couple of states.
    • maimeowmeow 8y ago
      Confidential clearance does not seem stringent. You can avoid reinvestigation for 15 years, while secret needs to be reinvestigated every 10 years. I've generally heard that secret level work is pretty boring, so I doubt confidential would be better.
      • dx87 8y ago
        You're right about secret level work being boring, it's normally related to stuff like the exact time and location of a military flight or convoy, or other things that can impact people at a smaller level, but aren't really dangerous to the nation as a whole if they get leaked. I think I only ever saw something marked as confidential one time while I was in the military; general information was normally unclassified and anything that was deemed sensitive was bumped up to secret because it was easy to get for anybody that had a need-to-know.
  • jonwachob91 8y ago
    We're starting the get into the finer details of the security clearance process, which I don't really want to do. But I'll do a high level response. I said what I said b/c I've personally been tasked with getting an entire infantry battalion (~900 infantryman + the support elements) security clearances for a deployment. The battalion had no need for security clearances, but the DoD had approved all unit expenditures related to the deployment, so the BC requested it b/c a few Joe's asked for it so they could improve their job outlooks post-military. This comes down to the difference between needs for a security clearance and needs to access classified material. Just about anyone can technically get a security clearance investigation. Having completed a security clearance investigation doesn't actually award you a clearance, it awards you the eligibility for a clearance. Example, if you get your clearance in 1st Battalion, after you pass the investigation you get read on and sign an NDA (SF-312), the Security Manager accessing a system called JPAS and with the click of a button "turns your clearance on" (for lack of a better phrase), that awards you a clearance. Now lets say you transfer from 1st battalion to 2nd battalion, when leaving 1st battalion you sign another NDA (SF-312) and acknowledge that you understand what you did with that unit that was classified (often times you did nothing...), the security manager then goes back into JPAS and turns your clearance off. When you arrive at 2nd battalion, their security manager has you sign a new NDA (SF-312) and goes into JPAS to turn your clearance on. So yes, and entire infantry battalion can have security clearances without serving in any classified environment. I didn't say everyone in the military has little to no professional skills, so please don't put those words in my mouth. The military is just the only organization that gives clearances to those with little or no professional skills. Justice/State/industry sure as hell don't.
• djrogers 8y ago
  > veterans are the only people with security clearances and little to no professional skills. That is a horribly bigoted statement, the type of which wouldn’t be tolerated on HN if it were directed at almost any other group. You ought to be ashamed!
  • dang 8y ago
    The comment clearly wasn't about all veterans. In a case like this, the following site guideline should kick in: "Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html