How can I get an active DOD secret clearance?

I got a felony when I was 17 but case was sealed and expunged after I did my community service and paid restitution, I am 20 now and I have already been through meps and I have signed my contract as 25N and I ship out to basic in June , will the fbi investigator find out about my juvenile record or am I good ? I didn’t tell them at meps cause the recruiter and station commander told me to lie about it , but I want to hear from someone else

PVT (Join to see) - That's a tough call. After going through 20 years of background investigations for Top Secret and various programs like nukes and POTUS access I'll have to say that the investigations are VERY thorough. If you don't disclose it and a family member or someone else (they talk to way more people than the references you provide) tells them your reliability is shot from the start. That might mean you could never gain or hold a clearance. The problem is that you already failed to disclose it. Personally I would say exactly what you did here, but that has to be your choice.

I told all my family members not to say anything and half of my family wouldn’t talk to anyone that has anything to do with the police they think they are “pigs” so good luck to the investigator if he plans on trying to pull a fast one and talking to people I did not list but yea man my recruit and station commander told me to keep a closed mouth because they just want to weed people out and they won’t see anything they said TSgt David L.

PVT (Join to see) - They talked to folks I could have never envisioned, but you have to do as you feel best. Best of luck on your enlistment.

I concur with the MSgt... A clearance isn't something that you can simply apply for like a qualification. You have to either already have one or be sponsored into one by means of position. I completely understand your reasoning for asking. When I retired, I had a secret clearance level but allowed it to lapse when I got out. When I tried to apply for DoD positions requiring the clearance, I was often passed on by because mine was no longer active.

That's because all clearance levels require that sponsorship. It's a ton of paperwork, background checks, and in some cases in-dept investigations. That's not to say that if you have some kind of clearance, that you cannot be appointed to a position that requires a higher one. It's much easier to process up to a higher level of clearance than to processes from none at all. Also, once you receive the higher level of clearance, it's rare to be downgraded. You have to really mess up to have your higher clearance pulled. This is why many DoD contractors prefer newly exited service members.

My advice is to steer your career into a place that requires the higher level of security. Either as a collateral duty, training opportunity, qualification requirement, or duty station.