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?
I'm assuming that is the SF-86 paperwork?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?
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 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.
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.