On NSA polygraphs, the Polygraph begins with a series of questions about the day of the week eg:
Is today Monday?
Is today Tuesday?
Is today Wednesday?
etc..
Candidates are told to answer the questions correctly for the given day of the week.
Which question is the control question?
Any question series such as that which you describe above would be a so-called stimulation or "stim" test (also called an acquaintance test). It's a gimmick that's used to try to convince the examinee that the polygraph can actually detect deception. It doesn't include any control questions, and it isn't used to determine a person's eligibility for a security clearance.
The main procedure used by the NSA for screening purposes is the relevant/irrelevant test, which you'll find documented in The Lie Behind the Lie Detector (https://antipolygraph.org/lie-behind-the-lie-detector.pdf).