QUESTIONS!! PLEASE HELP!!

[Alli]

Hey y'all! My husband has been in the Navy for 3 years as an undesignated seaman and is now gong back to A-School for CTT. We have been waiting for over a year now for his security clearance and he finally has an interview with the investigator TODAY! We're so excited/nervous! I just wanted to ask a few questions... Once your service member had their interview about how long did it take to actually get orders to Pensacola? How long is the schooling? And did they move you with him? Thats my main concern... I've heard that A-School has to be a certain length for the Navy to move Spouses with the service member. If they don't and I move on our own expenses will he get to stay with me? and then from there will they move us both to his next duty station after A-School?  Please help!!

[Jim C]

Ali, Do you know if your husband got the CTT or CTT AEF? It makes a big difference in the length of school. Length of school normally determines if the Navy will move you. But since he's  been in for so long I'm not sure how it would work.

[rorysmom(Ship13Div244)]

Wow Alli!  So much going on for you two!  Son is 6-yr CTT...out of BC on 7/23 then to NAS P'Cola on 7/24...took the ATT class and then got over to Corry 1st week of October.  Didn't get into A school until Dec. 6th.  Says he should finish around March 11 then will be on hold for C school.  Lots of waiting!!!!!!  He is getting married next December and believes he will still be in school.  I think he said the total school days of A and C school are 210 classroom days...I'm sure others can answer more, but the realization is that there seems to almost always be a wait from one school to another, but you never know...being in so long, he may get right in!

[Jim C]

Ali, heres the breakdown in the CTT schools

4 year (standard) CTT

A school - 8 weeks

D school - 7 to 10 weeks

 

6 year, CTT AEF

ATT school - 5 weeks

A school - 8 weeks

C/D schools - 17 to 28 weeks

 

None of the above includes waiting times to class up. He may be considered a fleet returnee, they take priority and normally don't have to wait as long to class up.

 

[Craig]

Well, I'll explain the entire process just in case someone wants to know....

 

What was is job when he was/is a undesignated? It depends on how much data has already been collect. If his was working on the "Boat deck", he probably didn't have much done, however, if he was working as an OS, then he probably has alot of the clearance stuff done.

 

He will need to get a Top Secret security clearance, along with a SSBI (Single Scope Background Investigation) access. Some of the old timers call it SBI (Special Background Investigation), but that was replaced in December 1991 with SSBI. The 1st step in getting a DOD clearance is he will be sat down want talked to. They need to see if he has any "Dirt" in his background. Does he do drugs, does he commit crimes, has he hidden anything? Things like that. These investigators work for either the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) or the Defense Security Service (DSS), and the actual investigators are usually contractors, not actual government employees. Once they get done with him, then they will start on family, friends, neighboors, and school teachers. They want to find what kind of guy he is. These investigator do not determine if he is eligible or not, they are only investigators who collect the data.

 

This can take months...due to the huge numbers of people that need a clearance. There is a backlog of people waiting to have their investigations started, and a huge backlog of people waiting to have their clearances adjudicated once the investigations are done.

 

There are only three levels of security clearances--Confidential, Secret, and Top Secret--but there are many Special Access Programs (SAP) and many individually named compartments within SCI. SAPs and SCI are categories of classified information (not clearances) that require special access authorization.

There is an SSBI which is an investigation method to grant TS clearance. Then there is an SCI (Sensitive Compartmented Information) which is another level of access to a certain type of information (i.e. TS(SCI)). An SSBI is used as a determination for allowing an individual access to SCI information. SCI is a program that requires the person to go through an in-briefing prior to being granted access; this is often referred to as "being read in".

Once an investigation is complete, the information is passed to an adjudication facility, Department of the Navy Central Adjudication Facility (DONCAF). http://www.ncis.navy.mil/securitypolicy/DONCAF/Pages/default.aspx

 

At that point, the adjudicator uses a matrix to determine what level of clearance a person can be granted. Once the adjudication is complete, the person is granted clearance to the determined level. It is up to the command to determine what level of access the person will need. For example, if SN Stains (great name huh?, I love funnin') goes through an SSBI (they won't do these for a person who would only need access to Secret or Confidential their entire career) and is adjudicated a TS clearance, but his command has determined that the job he will be doing while there is only at the Secret level, then the command should only grant him access to Secret. Now when Petty Officer Stains transfers three years later to his new command, they determine he will need access to TS, then based on the SSBI he was granted (good for five years) he can be cleared for access to TS. Then the command decides PO Stains will need to access SCI material, they read him into the program and he now has access to TS-SCI.

Of course Need-to-Know is another thing entirely.

So there you have it.... It will take months to get the clearance and access....