i haven't made any assumptions, just breaking down clues on his uniform for others. if there's a clear pic of his ribbon rack, i can break it down further.

i knew some guys that worked with spooks while deployed and if they were expected to do anything below board, they were first paper separated from the military and given a contractor job for IRS purposes. but the whole time, their official military records would be moved to a higher classification system. afterwards, they would paper rejoin the military. and none of the stuff they did with spooks would be reflected on their military records.