Personal debt keeps troops home

[bongo2]

I found this strange and facinating:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15337932/

"Thousands of U.S. troops are being barred from overseas duty because they are so deep in debt they are considered security risks, according to an Associated Press review of military records."

 

[Nords]

“We are seeing an alarming trend in degrading financial health,” said Navy Capt. Mark D. Patton, commanding officer at San Diego’s Naval Base Point Loma.

Hey, Gumby, classmate alert!

I can't ever recall pulling a clearance for indebtedness. This choice isn't made lightly because it's a career-ender... loss of faster promotions, special pay, and valuable civilian-employment skills/qualifications.

I don't know whether pulling more clearances results from a rising indebtedness problem or from a rising supervisory awareness of how much $$$ contributed to the motivation of traitors like Walker & Ames.

 

[riskadverse]

If they reinstitute the draft, I'll bet the occurance will go up 10000 times, but there will still be "no evidence that service members are deliberately running up debts to stay out of harm’s way."

 

[samclem]

It is very clear why servicemembers should lose their clearance when they get into financial trouble. The linkage to deployability is less clear--I'm not aware of any instance where an individual requires a higher clearance beause he/she is deployed than he/she would otherwise require for their normal job. These folks that are in clearance trouble are often on the way out of the service, since, if they can't get things squared away, then they can't really be used effectively. I guess they might be on a control roster and not subject to deployment for that reason.

It is possible that losing a clearance could make a guy MORE subject to deployments and tough duty. I'd bet an Army crypto clerk who loses his clearance likely faces mandatory retraining into infantry, MP, driver duty, etc. Keeping track of the crypto material is safer duty than driving 5 ton trucks from Basrah to Baghdad.

 

[lets-retire]

It is possible that losing a clearance could make a guy MORE subject to deployments and tough duty. I'd bet an Army crypto clerk who loses his clearance likely faces mandatory retraining into infantry, MP, driver duty, etc. Keeping track of the crypto material is safer duty than driving 5 ton trucks from Basrah to Baghdad.

All of those jobs require a clearance. Even the coffee server at the generals' meetings has to have a clearance. Once the clearance is pulled the person works on weeds and seeds or halls and walls until they are eligible for the clearance.

 

[samclem]

Not all clearances are the same. The crypto clerk has a very high level clearance (requiring a "Special Background Investigation" [SBI]), while some jobs can be done with something known as a "favorable" clearance, which requies nothing more than a check on public criminal records. Thousands of non-US citizens serve in the military, they are excluded from access to a lot of classified info, but they can still function effectively in some positions, particularly in the USMC and the Army.

 

[lets-retire]

Not all clearances are the same. The crypto clerk has a very high level clearance (requiring a "Special Background Investigation" [SBI]), while some jobs can be done with something known as a "favorable" clearance, which requies nothing more than a check on public criminal records. Thousands of non-US citizens serve in the military, they are excluded from access to a lot of classified info, but they can still function effectively in some positions, particularly in the USMC and the Army.

Clearances were my bread and butter for many years. I can still quote whole sections of the National Industrial Security Program Operating Manuel from memory. It's actually SSBI. There is no 'favorable' clearance, only confidential, secret, and top secret (some agencies use different names, but the clearances can be classified in one of those three areas). Favorable refers to the results of a investigation not a clearance. There are, however, higher levels of access in top secret. The most basic investigation is a NACI, which includes a national agency criminal check as well as a credit check.

All of that aside. If someone loses their TS due to bad credit then they also will not have access to any of the other classified information. The theory is simple. If you do something bad enough to have a access to classified information restricted, we are not going to downgrade your clearance we are going to pull it, most likely only temporarily but it will be pulled.