The process can take a long time if you never had a clearance. Seeing as he was ex navy his clearance would have just been inactive so it takes a shorter time to get it back active.
There is a big push to tighten up the process. A lot of people got granted clearances because of the Iraq and Afghanistan situation. DOD could not wait for years for the clearances to come back.
It often takes a long time, regardless. I’m talking those who already hold some. Some people took forever to officially recieve, others not too long. Very inconsistent. But I guess that’s only evidence of how inefficient government is.