So today in our weekly bagel hour meeting, we decided to actually do something productive and do some of the mandatory training that Boeing has us do. Everyone with a security clearance has to do annual refresher courses so you don't forget all the stuff that we are and aren't
supposed to do.
One of the things has to do with traveling abroad. We're not supposed to wear clothes that would give us away as being from the U.S. After discussing this in the group, we determined things like Tampa Bay Buccaneers jersey's, baseball hats, and Levi's were all out. Being a mature group of software engineers, after analyzing the problem we determined the best solution is to travel naked. I think I'll be looking for the 2nd best solution.
Levis are actually very popular in many parts of Europe and the enterprising traveler can in fact bring some in and sell them at quite a profit. I believe they go for 90-100 Euros or so.
Athletic shoes (especially white ones.. or white clothing in general), shorts, shirts with logos/name brands, and as you mentioned, baseball hats, all make one stick out as an American. There're lots of little mannerisms that can distinguish you as well.
I found that Europeans like to claim that they can guess your nationality no matter how hard you try to disguise yourself. However, this claim didn't hold up too well when they tried to guess where I was from (especially when alone).. "German? French? Spanish? Italian? English...?"
It is fun to attempt to blend in with the culture, but I don't think it's that big of a problem for it to be necessary to hide your nationality. I can see the security issues... but yeah... if you're really worried, I was told that if someone asks where you're from, reply: "I'm from Canada, eh...."
I apparently could pass for German quite easily, and I wasn't even trying.
I'm not really worried myself, but I'm sure just having a security clearance makes you a bigger target for the bad guys than average joe citizen. Although if they can find out that someone has a clearance, I'd hope they could find someone who actually knows cool stuff.