I fielded the same complaint from a major (military friendly) author recently, who got great access from the USMC and less from the Army. When criticized that his upcoming book is "Marine centric", his basic response was "they gave me access, I tried the army, but they wouldn't give me access to FOUO stuff I need to tell the stories".
Current security guidelines make no distinction between sharing with a US civilian (retired military) and a terrorist from Afghanistan. What drives the caution is the fear of losing a security clearance, which can end a career.
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