vetting was carried out by a regular army team of mostly retired officers from outside northern ireland including a vice admiral and a number of major generals. each applicant had to provide two references and the referees would be interviewed by a vetting officer. applicants were divided into three categories: those who were immediately deemed acceptable, those who were to be immediately rejected and those whose applications threw up doubt about their suitability. all applications were supposed to be submitted to the ruc special branch and criminal investigation department, but in practice this didn't always happen because of the initially high number of applicants.