For an entire decade I worked for Boeing without a security clearance. It wasn't required, I was never told what I was supporting when the security cleared people came to me for help on something. They would always give ambiguous questions and I had to give solid answers. In this I always remembered a story from a PhD working for North American Aviation. He was called to Edwards AFB in 1954 to advise on something. He was seated facing a huge curtain in a hangar at the base. People would come out from behind the curtain and ask him questions and he would answer them is good as he could. They would then go back behind the curtain, discuss it with others and then come back out with more questions for him. Twenty years later he learned that behind the curtain was the X-10, a top secret supersonic drone of the 1950s. He also never had a security clearance.
Many years later, while working for Boeing I was called to help fix a recurring problem with the Delta IV fuel tank. After reviewing the problem I told them what the obvious solution was (and its a simple one too). A few months later I was told they couldn't implement the solution because the tank in question already was being sold to the Japanese for their Ha2 launch vehicle. So we couldn't fix our problem without fixing the Japanese tank, and fixing the Japanese tank violated ITAR regulations.
I state this for a reason: I am regularly seeing job postings I can't apply too because the poster wants people with active security clearances. Not just can I get one, they want it active now. And because I haven't been working for three years I am viewed as unable to get a security clearance (some employers won't consider a person if they have been looking for work for more then 6 months). So instead, who do we find they have turned the keys to the kingdom. Outside of the Army nut presently siting in prison, and Edward Snowden who's now living comfortably in Russia, we now have this guy. How can these people be getting top security access when they obviously have so many red flags.
In the old days even minor issues could get you thrown out. My dad saw a man removed from NAA in the 1950s when the investigators found out his father wasn't a US citizen. Turned out the engineer's father had given up his citizenship so he could volunteer for the Canadian Army in 1914. When the US entered the world War in 1917 he transferred to an American Army unit believing he would get his citizenship back. Instead his son ended up removed from his job forty years later because the proper paper work wasn't filed. Decades later a young woman my sister went to engineering school with, who was an excellent engineer, was denied security clearance when it came out she still had relatives living in Cuba. I was even warned the same when I was dating a young woman of Indian background that her having family in Indian would cause me problems with security clearance.
And yet today people with far more potential problems get top secret clearance. The guy who set off this rant's wife is reported to have been carrying thumb drives with ITAR tech in it as she was boarding a plane to China. Are we checking the laptops or thumb drives of the H1B visa guest workers who we are now training in skills they didn't have in their home country. And after that, are we erasing the brains of these workers to remove the skills they learned to do here before they go back home. What the hell is going on today.
Many years later, while working for Boeing I was called to help fix a recurring problem with the Delta IV fuel tank. After reviewing the problem I told them what the obvious solution was (and its a simple one too). A few months later I was told they couldn't implement the solution because the tank in question already was being sold to the Japanese for their Ha2 launch vehicle. So we couldn't fix our problem without fixing the Japanese tank, and fixing the Japanese tank violated ITAR regulations.
I state this for a reason: I am regularly seeing job postings I can't apply too because the poster wants people with active security clearances. Not just can I get one, they want it active now. And because I haven't been working for three years I am viewed as unable to get a security clearance (some employers won't consider a person if they have been looking for work for more then 6 months). So instead, who do we find they have turned the keys to the kingdom. Outside of the Army nut presently siting in prison, and Edward Snowden who's now living comfortably in Russia, we now have this guy. How can these people be getting top security access when they obviously have so many red flags.
In the old days even minor issues could get you thrown out. My dad saw a man removed from NAA in the 1950s when the investigators found out his father wasn't a US citizen. Turned out the engineer's father had given up his citizenship so he could volunteer for the Canadian Army in 1914. When the US entered the world War in 1917 he transferred to an American Army unit believing he would get his citizenship back. Instead his son ended up removed from his job forty years later because the proper paper work wasn't filed. Decades later a young woman my sister went to engineering school with, who was an excellent engineer, was denied security clearance when it came out she still had relatives living in Cuba. I was even warned the same when I was dating a young woman of Indian background that her having family in Indian would cause me problems with security clearance.
And yet today people with far more potential problems get top secret clearance. The guy who set off this rant's wife is reported to have been carrying thumb drives with ITAR tech in it as she was boarding a plane to China. Are we checking the laptops or thumb drives of the H1B visa guest workers who we are now training in skills they didn't have in their home country. And after that, are we erasing the brains of these workers to remove the skills they learned to do here before they go back home. What the hell is going on today.
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