[Milsurplus] U.S. Classification Levels

[Mike Morrow]

>Actually, that isn't totally correct.  Or at least in the stated sense.  The 
>names of the security classifications were changed.  The term "Restricted" was 
>changed to "Confidential".  "Confidential" was changed to "Secret".  And so 
>on up the chain.  Unclassified was added to the bottom of the food chain.  And 
>terms like UNCLAS EFTO and UNCLAS NOFORN came into use.  The declassification 
>process was/is independent of the nomenclature changes.  

Robert,

I've never experienced examples of the process that you describe. What, for example, did old TOP SECRET items become?  

My experience with US military classification systems was middle to late Cold War, primarily but not exclusively as a nuclear submarine line officer.  I've seen many old RESTRICTED items, but none that had been reclassified CONFIDENTIAL.  Likewise, I never saw any old CONFIDENTIAL item that had reclassified SECRET, nor any old SECRET item had been reclassified TOP SECRET.  Reclassification, when it had occurred, was typically in the opposite direction.  Whatever the intention, it seems to me that it was in effect a matter of dropping the RESTRICTED classification, and reclassifying anything *new* that would have received a RESTRICTED classification as CONFIDENTIAL.

I've never seen any UNCLAS NOFORN (NOFORN = NO FOREIGN NATIONAL RELEASE).  CONFIDENTIAL NOFORN was normally specifically restricted to naval nuclear propulsion information.  There are all sorts of things that were above TOP SECRET that required elaborate and expensive special background investigations of the personnel cleared for it, such as stuff like SIOP-ESI, the meaning of which can be found on the web.  In the submarine world, it was often the job of the poor radioman to fill out the paperwork for the folks required to have such investigations.  Not pleasant for the radioman nor the fellow to be investigated for access.

Since 1999 the US Navy has had no Radiomen (RM) rating.  It was merged with the Data Processing Technician (DP) rating to form the Information Systems Technician (IT) rating.  Thus does 80 years of tradition vanish!

Mike / KK5F