text: is it "normal" to give marines security info or will marines contact us directly? im hoping someone can help me with this. my niece joined the marines about a year ago.  she called me today wanting my wifes identification # for her security clearance (my wife is from europe). initially, i told her i wasnt going to give her any of my wifes info. then we decided it might be in our best interest (no fbi, cia, etc) to just give my neice my wifes drivers license #. we did, but now wonder why this is really needed. if this was needed, wouldnt the marines contact us directly? i think something fishy is going on and want to get to the bottom of this. can anyone here offer us any advice on what we should have done and what we should do now? isnt it odd my neice is asking for peoples id numbers? if she is up for some sort of security clearance shouldnt the marines contact us directly? i just dont like the smell of this. and if we dont give the info, adolf bush is gonna send the marines in on us. the marines need the information, so they can provide it to the civilian agency that will do the background check and conduct the interviews.  if you do not provide the information, then it is possible that they will find it out some other way, through public records, but it will take longer and your niece's security clearance could be delayed, or even denied.    yes, this is perfectly legit.  yes, your niece was the one to ask you, the military is not in the habit of calling random people up out of the blue and demanding identification numbers.    deopending on the relationship your niece has with her aunt and how high her clearance needs to be will depend on whether or not you will be contacted for an interview.  all the marines are interested in is finding out whether or not your niece could ever be put into a compromising situation witha foreign governmnet    if your wife has nothing to hide(she's here legally, etc) then there is nothing to worry about.  quit being so bloody paranoid.  be grateful that your niece is serving her country, giving you the freedom to badmouth your president.