As a military veteran of 27 years with various "permanent" and/or interim levels of clearances during my tenure, I can tell you this much - you tell the COMPLETE TRUTH and you are an open book. If they ask you if you were a bully in school, ever cheated on your spouse, snorted coke, etc., etc., etc. - you answer them HONESTLY because they WILL find out the truth (if they don't already know beforehand - most likely scenario). The OPM's job is to certify you are an honest person with all of the (sometimes uncomfortable) truths on paper so they know you cannot be bribed by enemies, both Foreign and Domestic and that's that... PERIOD.
LOOK - they aren't going to use your answers against you to get you fired, or in the case of the military, dishonorably discharged for lying to your recruiter to get into the military in the first place...PROMISE you! It's not their job, nor is it their intent. Your commander will only see either "Denied" or "Granted"... much like hard-pulls vs soft-pulls' visibility to potential "pre-approved" credit grantors do (IOW, they don't bother looking at the dirt unless it becomes a national security issue).
Full disclosure: I was a military recruiter briefly myself, before I saw the horrors of war and realized I could no longer send people to the desert anymore.
Back to the topic: You tell them about EVERY skeleton in your closet they ask about, including any credit woes, missteps, whatever, and you'll most likely get that Top you're needing. Best of luck and I hope this helps!
