LOL! "Marched" - they probably would have like to have said "Duck walked"....I was a security manager for a long time and knew many good people who failed to get security clearances for pretty mundane reasons - in some cases a commander could waiver the person as long as they wouldn't be in contact with classified but that was mainly used for folks who had been on board then failed a re-check due to financial woes, etc.
The implication is that these people were serious mistakes when some old minor lapse may very well be the reason.