This is my true personal story which is over 30 years old now but it still needs to be told because it is my belief that such things are still happening today.

I entered the government in the form of the U.S. Army in 1968. I was required to have a moderate security clearance for where I worked, fixed station communications. All that means is that we stayed in one place as opposite to those in communications who were assigned to ground troops that moved around. I remember getting a phone call from my mother asking me why the F.B.I. had come around to ask her questions about me and I told her to not worry, that this was standard practice for getting a security clearance at any level.

That proved true for my first two assignments, Korean and Italy. But my next assignment was at Fort Ritchie Maryland, which, at the time, was the support base for “the mountain,” an extremely secure facility that was literally bored into a mountain to serve as an Alternate National Security Center. It took months to get a security clearance there because of the requirement to have the highest of clearances along with compartmental clearance, things like NATO, CENTO, and other organization of which I actually had not knowlege nor did I need such knowledge. But one place we worked directly for was the White House. And indirectly for Camp David which was not many miles away. Because of the seriousness of these clearances, a person was interview by a security specialist who went through every line of the security clearance application. The application itself is a standard for seen all over the government. But before we signed such a document, the security officer made sure that the application was as close to correct as humanly possible. I got the clearances. Enough said about that.

Years later I was a part of the U.S. Department of Transportation and had been approved for the grade of a GS-13, a fairly high grade which under the GS schedule, then and now, was only two below the maxium rating prior to becoming a part of the Senior Executive Service, a beast unto itself.

At some point in 1991 I was given a form for a security clearance to fill out. I did my best to fill it out but I knowingly sent it forward incomplete, knowing that I would be called in by the security officer for a review of the application. This was not only standard to all departments of the U.S. Governement, but was written into the Rules & Regulations of the U.S. Department of Transportation, Volpe Center, Cambridge Massachusetts. Months passed and I forgot about it until I got an interoffice mail with one page of the security for in there asking me to sign it. I did so, foolishly, having forgotten that it was incomplete. Now, that it came from the HR at Volpe, that was their second mistake. By that same Volpe Manual, it was not just the Security Officer who was supposed to review the application with me but also the Director of Human Resources. Neither of those things happened.

Months passed and one day a man, an “industrial investigator,” not a federal employee but a contractor of some sort comes to review the application with me. Upon looking at it, I immediately recognized that it was incomplete and told him as much. I said that I would work with him to complete it. In addition to that this man asked me a lot of strange questions, things that no logical person would believe to have anything to do with national security. To be clear, and to this day, I am right up there with everyone who is dedicated to our national security. It is extremely important.

The next thing I know, I got a letter denying me a clearance which was nothing more, actually, than a background check, something every school teaching in the U.S. must have. I was quickly deflated and confused. I actually became paniced quite quickly as this was an offense to my sense of pride in my country.

The next thing I know, my boss had launched an effort to have me reduced in grade from a GS-13 to a GS-11. This was actually against government regulation as by regulation you cannot be reduced to a point where your pay is lowered. Next there was an investigation conducted by none other than the person who had started this process. An obvious conflict of interest but quite possibly a standard of operation at the Volpe Center, I do not know this as a fact.

I was a member of the Government Employees Union and reached out to them for help. The local representative was dying from cancer and continuously forgot about me. I do not bear any ill-will towards this man considering his condition but rather to the local chapter. I made an appointment with the local chapter to speak with one of their lawyers. Well, I was assigned a newly minted lawyer. It turned out that I knew more about the applicable Federal Laws under CFR 12, if memory serves correctly, than he did but it is he who I was stuck with. I called him several times each week asking him where he stood. I did not see any progress but was still stuck.

Next was the “trial” itself. This was nothing more than an arbitration meeting with the entire U.S. Government in the form of the Office of Personnel Management against me, just me. It was done via phone. I was informed that I was being given limited protection of my rights. I had never heard of such a thing, save my being in the Army where they were understood according to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which I had made myself very familiar. At one point during this hearing I tried to admit the Volpe book on its Rules and Regulations at the time of this “trial.” I was denied being told that it was not allowed but to which they had no response.

Let back up just a tiny bit, in this room where the conference call was made were two lawyers for Volpe, my lawyer and myself. During the entire proceeding I had tried to make contact with the eys of one lawyer in particular because I had gone to her to ask her what was happening and that I thought it was unjust. Without using words, I could easily see she agreed with me. But during this arbitration, she refused to make eye contact even though I tried many times.

Well, as you can probably guess, the government prevailed in spite of its lack of evidence that anything malicious on my part ever happened and that I had always fully cooperated with governement officials and their contractor. I was demoted to a GS-11 and within a few days I had a total mental breakdown which required two weeks of inpatient care. Before the years was out there were two more relapses each requiring two weeks of care.

It was obvious to anyone who cared to look at what had happened, the government wanted me to quit but I refused to do so. The next thing I knew I was thrown under two incompetent bosses. Fortunately, I had a good friend who worked on U.S. Air Force projects who did his best to keep me separated from these people. The second boss, to her credit, did get me back to a GS-12 rating but that is as high as I ever got even though I richly deserved a promotion back to GS-13. But that is another story for another time.

Sadly this is but one case of how our Federal Government can break its own rules, break the spirit of a person, and keep on moving forward in denial that it has acted improperly.