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Most MAGs admit people based on gut feel. This curriculum teaches you to vet them the way military intelligence collectors, law enforcement background investigators, and counterintelligence professionals do — using publicly available methods that require no badge, no clearance, and no prior investigation experience. It takes discipline to apply consistently. That is the point.
Lessons
Weeks per investigation
Vetting tracks
Prior experience required
What This Curriculum Teaches
The curriculum runs two sequential tracks — Security Vetting and Character Assessment — followed by a certification lesson that tests your judgment against documented scenarios before you conduct a live investigation.
Security Vetting
- Building an investigation plan with specific Essential Elements of Information
- Systematic OSINT collection across public records, social media, and threat indicators
- Reference elicitation without tipping your hand
- Structured interviewing and FM 2-22.3 deceit detection
Character Assessment
- What records cannot tell you — and how to find it
- Dedicated character reference interviews
- Scenario-based questions that surface reasoning quality, not stated values
- Writing a defensible written assessment that integrates both tracks
Course Lessons
Lessons are gated — each lesson unlocks after you pass the knowledge check in the previous one. Begin with the orientation lesson below.
The Investigator Mindset and Collection Plan
How professional investigators think, and how to build a targeted EEI collection plan before you search anything.
OSINT Collection — Records, Social Media, and Threat Indicators
Systematic open-source collection across court records, property records, social media, and gang and extremist indicators.
Reference Elicitation
How to conduct reference conversations that produce honest, unguarded information without alerting the candidate.
The Investigative Interview
Structured interview technique, baseline establishment, and deceit detection using FM 2-22.3 behavioral indicators.
What Records Cannot Tell You
The limits of the paper trail and how to assess the qualities that documentation does not capture.
Character Reference Interviews
Dedicated character reference conversations that go beyond background verification to assess judgment and reliability under pressure.
Values and Judgment Assessment
Scenario-based questioning technique that surfaces how a candidate actually reasons, not just what they say they believe.
Writing the Assessment
How to synthesize both tracks into a single defensible written recommendation using professional confidence language standards.
Judgment Calibration — Four Scenarios with Ground Truths
Write your assessment on four real-seeming scenarios before seeing the documented answers. The gap between your judgment and the professional standard is your training data.
This curriculum is also available as a facilitated group session — suited for MAGs that want to train a Vetting Officer together, run calibration scenarios with live debrief, or integrate this training into a wider group preparedness program. Contact to inquire about scheduling.