Top Secret Clearance?

aglages

10-Year Member
5-Year Member
Joined
Aug 27, 2009
Messages
2,651
I recently had a discussion with some co-workers about whether ALL newly commissioned officers are required to receive a Top Secret Clearance. Is it just some military specialties or do ALL commissioned officers need this clearanced?
 
I recently had a discussion with some co-workers about whether ALL newly commissioned officers are required to receive a Top Secret Clearance. Is it just some military specialties or do ALL commissioned officers need this clearanced?

The TS clearance is only for certain specialties, officers are required to have a Secret Clearance when commissioned.
 
I recently had a discussion with some co-workers about whether ALL newly commissioned officers are required to receive a Top Secret Clearance. Is it just some military specialties or do ALL commissioned officers need this clearanced?

My memory is that all officers had some basic level of security clearance and from there you were investigated and received higher levels based on particular roles you might be assigned to. You might even be downgraded after completion of a particular assignment.

Also, I seem to recall that there were many levels of security clearance. If I remember correctly, Top secret isn't the pinnacle. Or perhaps it has to do with types of information and the "need to know".

Foggy after so many years but I definately know I had to have a higher level for my last assignment which required further paperwork, background checks, periodic spot checks, etc.
 
If my memory serves me correctly TS also does not mean they can access any TS area. I.E. Your DD will be a nurse, I would assume she will have TS clearance because she can access medical records, but her TS clearance will not allow her to access anything regarding airframes. Vise a Verse, Bullet has a TS, but I doubt he has any access to medical or personnel records.

IOTW, the TS clearance is for access regarding their job, but not into anything and everything.
 
Well I know that I (Pilot select) had to get a Top Secret clearance as well as the CSO select, ABM select, and RPA pilot select at my detachment. I don't know what other jobs have to get it, but I know that not all jobs require a Top Secret clearance. Most people actually don't go through the process to get a Top Secret clearance. It's usually jobs that will have to handle sensitive information for missions.
 
I would assume Intel, SP, JAG, Maintenance, and probably A&F too, maybe even some PA officers.

In the AF it is common for many officers have TS because even non-rated may have to deal with personnel that have a TS clearance. Look at most bases, they have multi-million dollar planes and it takes a lot of people to get that plane up in the air.

A maintenance officer knows the innards of the plane and is just as important as the flier. The SP is guarding the flight line....that big red restricted line where you are told you will be shot if you step over it :eek::rolleyes::wink::biggrin: They need to check them out.

The flight meds that take care of the fliers.

The Intel person that hands off the information.

The Acct & Finance officer handling the base finance. Knows personal info of TS members, and finances for each base.

The JAG in charge of writing wills, and deployed with the fliers. Knows personal info of TS info, and legal issues regarding sensitive issues.

The PA officer that works on the Wing EXEC, privilege to where they are, what they are doing.

I am sure there are many that have just an SC, but I believe in our DS's det class of 26 grads...all of them had a TS. 13 were rated. As I said in my last post TS does not mean they have access to everything TS. It just means for their area that is their AFSC they have TS clearance. Bullet at the Pentagon working on the 35 with a TS is not going to be allowed to access Acct & Finance.

Could be wrong, but that is how it was explained to me.
 
A nurse is not going to need a TS. Medical and personnel records are not Top Secret.

SECURITY CLASSIFICATION LEVELS All information or material considered vital to the safety of the United States is given a security classification level. Each security classification level indicates (tells) the amount of protection the information and material requires to safeguard it against unauthorized disclosure. There are only three security classification levels—Top Secret, Secret, and Confidential.
Top Secret
Top Secret is the classification level applied to information whose unauthorized disclosure could reasonably be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security. Some examples of information that could cause grave damage to national security include— Armed hostilities against the United States or its allies A disruption of foreign relations vitally affecting the national security The compromise of vital national defense plans The disclosure of complex cryptographic and communications intelligence systems The disclosure of sensitive intelligence operations The disclosure of significant scientific or technological developments vital to national security Secret
Secret is the classification level applied to information whose unauthorized disclosure could reasonably be expected to cause serious damage to the national security. Some examples of information that could cause serious damage to national security include information that could— Disrupt foreign relations significantly affecting the nation’s security Significantly impair a program or policy directly related to the national security D i s c l o s e s i g n i fi c a n t m i l i t a r y p l a n s o r intelligence operations C o m p r o m i s e s i g n i fi c a n t s c i e n t i fi c o r technological developments relating to national security
Confidential
Confidential is the classification level applied to information whose unauthorized disclosure could reasonably be expected to cause damage to the national security. Some examples of information that could cause damage to national security include information that could— Indicate ground, air, and naval forces (such as force levels and force dispositions) Reveal performance characteristics, such as design, test, and production data of U.S. munitions and weapons systems Controlled Unclassified Information Controlled unclassified information is defined and governed by laws, international agreements, and regulations that address the identification, marking, protection, handling, transmission, transportation, and destruction of controlled unclassified information.
Controlled unclassified information includes—
For Official Use Only (FOUO)
information under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
Department of State (DOS)
Sensitive But Unclassified (SBU)
information DOD and DOE Unclassified Controlled Nuclear Information (UCNI)
 
FOIA isn't a "control"... it's almost the opposite, althought it does talk about information that CAN be released. Things may be designated FOUO, but they won't be designated FOIA. A news agency may request information using FOIA.

And there there are a number of other designations, DOE has its own list of letters corresponding with access.

What has been said, but should be restated, is clearance doesn't not mean access. Most officers will have SECRET (which I've always wondered, if everyone has the clearance, does the classification really mean anything...)

TOP SECRET will get you into nothing, unless you have a reason to be there. And TOP SECRET material requires "two-person integrity" or TPI, unless, apparently, you work for Booz Allen Hamilton.

I had TS. I had access to the secured space on my ship. That clearance did not mean I could just roll into any other TS space on my own too... even on other Coast Guard cutters.

What you'll find is, once you have the clearance and the responsibility that comes with it, you'll often wish you had nothing more than confidential.
 
I would assume Intel, SP, JAG, Maintenance, and probably A&F too, maybe even some PA officers.

In the AF it is common for many officers have TS because even non-rated may have to deal with personnel that have a TS clearance. Look at most bases, they have multi-million dollar planes and it takes a lot of people to get that plane up in the air.

A maintenance officer knows the innards of the plane and is just as important as the flier. The SP is guarding the flight line....that big red restricted line where you are told you will be shot if you step over it :eek::rolleyes::wink::biggrin: They need to check them out.

The flight meds that take care of the fliers.

The Intel person that hands off the information.

The Acct & Finance officer handling the base finance. Knows personal info of TS members, and finances for each base.

The JAG in charge of writing wills, and deployed with the fliers. Knows personal info of TS info, and legal issues regarding sensitive issues.

The PA officer that works on the Wing EXEC, privilege to where they are, what they are doing.

I am sure there are many that have just an SC, but I believe in our DS's det class of 26 grads...all of them had a TS. 13 were rated. As I said in my last post TS does not mean they have access to everything TS. It just means for their area that is their AFSC they have TS clearance. Bullet at the Pentagon working on the 35 with a TS is not going to be allowed to access Acct & Finance.

Could be wrong, but that is how it was explained to me.

This is pretty surprising to me...as an SNA I only have a Secret and (as it was explained to me) would only ever need a TS if I was in a billet requiring it. The only MOSs that required a TS at TBS were the various intels (HUMINT, SIGINT, AIRINT, and Ground Intel). The only Navy guys I'm aware of who needed to get started on a TS at graduation were Nukes, SEALs, and Intel (and IW I guess?).

Maybe Air Force does it differently and I'm not fully aware of how the USMC/USN does stuff, but it seems odd to me that the AF would require so many off their officers have TSs. Like, does the AF Finance dude really need a TS when the Marine Finance equivalent functions fine doing a similar job with only a Secret? A lot of the stuff you talked about in your post seemed to fit more into PII (the sharing of which is obviously bad as well) rather than, like...actual secrets.
 
I highly doubt finance officers get blanket TS's. That's not how TS clearances work.
 
I only have a secret and I thought it really came down to "need to know basis". Interviewers have come to question me (TS interview process) regarding some peers who went signal, MI or went into group. I just don't think you can blanket TS jobs except for very specific fields.

As far as I know nurses do NOT have TS as a general rule of thumb. While medical record confidentiality is very important we have HIPAA to combat any record negligence. CPT Joe Smith's creatinine clearance, BUN levels and GFR for kidney failure is not a national security issue.
 
Don't MI officers need TS clearance to access that super secret program called .... Powerpoint?
 
You get a clearance if you will need information at a certain level or will need access to spaces that contain material a certain level. In order to look at something you also require a need to know for that material (access = clearance + need to know). Janitors will have clearances there because they work in classified spaces. That doesn't mean they will be logging into the computers and looking up our nations secrets. They just need to be cleared because they might have incidental contact with classified material.

At the TS level you can also have SCI (Sensitive Compartmented Information). When you have a TS/SCI you get read into certain compartments of information based on the job you will be doing and would have access only to material in that compartment.

Material is classified based on the damage it would do the nation if it were released so medical and other personal information isn't classified.
 
You get a clearance if you will need information at a certain level or will need access to spaces that contain material a certain level. In order to look at something you also require a need to know for that material (access = clearance + need to know). Janitors will have clearances there because they work in classified spaces. That doesn't mean they will be logging into the computers and looking up our nations secrets. They just need to be cleared because they might have incidental contact with classified material.

At the TS level you can also have SCI (Sensitive Compartmented Information). When you have a TS/SCI you get read into certain compartments of information based on the job you will be doing and would have access only to material in that compartment.

Material is classified based on the damage it would do the nation if it were released so medical and other personal information isn't classified.

You sound like the SSO brief. Nicely done.
 
Back
Top