I met a guy in the mid '90s who worked at the NSA previously in his younger days. All he said was they could be polygraphed anytime after retirement if investigated for leaking anything, etc. He didn't have any cool stories and I bet the majority of them don't.

Sure, some elite teams working for them probably are into some incredible stuff but they recruit a lot of ex-military people with existing clearances and experience to do even the most basic of tasks for them - which all requires legit secrecy even if their little slice of work it isn't very cool.

Another friend worked in a very sensitive area (no NSA but top secret clearance for general government/military installation), varying levels of secret clearances, etc where there was overwatch of military assets and livestream data of troop movements, fleet movements, etc. He said it sounded real James Bond to say he was actively using his top secret clearance for the government but in reality the secret stuff he was privy to (underwater topography, tide levels, perhaps where detailed reports were being made to identify shorelines that would make landing points, etc) was only important to the country that was being monitored. Even that information wasn't necessarily being acted on in real time - just needed for calculations and simulations for things like 'what if we were to insert this team - what beach would be ideal on this date, etc'.

I met a guy in the mid '90s who worked at the NSA previously in his younger days. All he said was they could be polygraphed anytime after retirement if investigated for leaking anything, etc. He didn't have any cool stories and I bet the majority of them don't.

Sure, some elite teams working for them probably are into some incredible stuff but they recruit a lot of ex-military people with existing clearances and experience to do even the most basic of tasks for them - which all requires legit secrecy even if their little slice of work it isn't very cool.

Another friend worked in a very sensitive area (no NSA but top secret clearance for general government/military installation), varying levels of secret clearances, etc where there was overwatch of military assets and livestream data of troop movements, fleet movements, etc. He said it sounded real James Bond to say he was actively using his top secret clearance for the government but in reality the secret stuff he was privy to (underwater topography, tide levels, perhaps where detailed reports were being made to identify shorelines that would make landing points, etc) to was only important to the country that was being monitored. Even that information wasn't necessarily being acted on in real time - just needed for calculations and simulations for things like 'what if we were to insert this team - what beach would be ideal on this date, etc'.