The United States Military Entrance Processing Command (USMEPCOM) evaluates applicants by applying established DoD standards during processing for military service.
USMEPCOM’s staff of over 3,300 military and Department of the Army civilian professionals are dedicated to ensuring that each applicant for enlistment in our Nation’s All-Volunteer Force meets DoD and Service-mandated aptitude, medical, and conduct qualification standards.
On July 1, 2026, the United States Military Entrance Processing Command celebrates 50 years as an independent command with the mission of evaluating and determining applicants’ eligibility for military service.
Throughout its 50-year existence, USMEPCOM has evaluated millions to determine if they meet established Department of Defense enlistment standards. After that determination, applicants take an Oath of Enlistment in the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, and most recently, the Space Force, and then travel to their service’s initial entry training.
Key to understanding what led up to USMEPCOM becoming a command requires an understanding of the need for an “independent broker” to oversee military processing.
The path to independence
After the Korean War began in 1950, military leaders noticed there were sharp contrasts in the quality of people serving in the military services. On April 2, 1951, the Secretary of Defense* sent a memorandum to the Secretaries of the Army, Navy and Air Force, stating that certain policies would change to ensure a fair distribution of military manpower. On September 1, 1951, the Secretary of the Army established Armed Forces Examining Stations, or AFES, to carry out the qualitative distribution program. In 1965, the AFES name changed to Armed Forces Examining and Entrance Stations, or AFEES.
The AFES initial mission was to facilitate the standardization of military processing and ensure each military service received a fair distribution of quality enlistees. The AFES reported to their executive agent, the Army. Initial military staffing was 50 percent Army, 30 percent Air Force, 15 percent Navy, and 5 percent Marine Corps. In the early days of AFES, potential military recruits were herded from room to room and processed through the various medical screening steps – eyes, ears, walk like a duck, turn your head and cough, etc. AFES and AFEES performed the military processing mission for 25 years.
USMEPCOM was born at the beginning of a period of significant change within the military. On January 27, 1973, the nation ended the draft and turned to an All-Volunteer Force. In March 1973, the U.S. Army Recruiting Command moved from Hampton, Va., to Fort Sheridan, Ill. With military volunteerism still in its infancy, on July 1, 1976, Department of the Army General Order Number 7 established the United States Military Enlistment Processing Command at Fort Sheridan. The new command was formed as a staff element of USAREC and created from its existing resources.
Becoming USMEPCOM did not change the processing mission – the command would continue to administer medical and aptitude tests and administratively process applicants at 66 AFEES and two substations in Guam and Anchorage. Along their institutional green walls, and down their linoleum covered floors, hallway-long red, blue, yellow, and green stripes were painted as guides for the potential recruits to follow from point to point along their pre-enlistment journey. The furniture was government-issue grey steel. The chatter of IBM Selectric typewriters and frequent sergeant’s bark provided the soundtrack.
In August 1979, the dual-hatted USAREC-USMEPCOM Commander recommended to the Army Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel that USMEPCOM should stand alone. The Army approved his recommendation and on October 1, 1979, the Secretary of the Army directed that USMEPCOM would separate from USAREC and the USMEPCOM commander would report directly to the DCSPER. With that separation, USMEPCOM became a truly “independent broker” for military entrance processing.
In 1981, the Assistant Secretary of the Army changed the processing stations’ names from AFEES to Military Entrance Processing Stations. In 1983, the command was redesignated the United States Military Entrance Processing Command and moved from Fort Sheridan to its present location, as a tenant of Naval Station Great Lakes, with a North Chicago, Ill. address.
Especially in the early years, the command studied MEPS locations, resulting in some stations closing and others relocating. Today USMEPCOM operates 65 MEPS and one Remote Processing Station in Las Vegas. Only four of the 65 MEPS still exist in their original locations: Fargo, N.D, established in 1961; New York City, established in 1965; Montgomery, Ala., established in 1968; and Louisville, Ky., established in 1969.
USMEPCOM once had three sectors – Western, Central and Eastern. This changed on January 28, 1993, when the then-Central Sector commander assumed leadership of Eastern Sector and the then-Eastern Sector commander retired. The former Eastern Sector closed its doors at Fort Meade, Maryland, and the new Eastern Sector remained in North Chicago. At the transition ceremony, all sector perimeters faded and new lines were drawn, with MEPS divided geographically, along the Mississippi River. Western Sector was originally located in Oakland, Calif., moved to Presidio of San Francisco, Calif., then to Aurora, Colo., and then landed where it is today, with USMEPCOM headquarters.
The DoD assigned the Army as executive agent for USMEPCOM. However, for operational and policy supervision, USMEPCOM would report directly to the then Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, Military Manpower and Personnel Policy. Today, USMEPCOM reports directly to the Director of Accession Policy, Office of the Under Secretary of War for Personnel and Readiness.
Rolling in the Red Carpet
During the 1980s, the assembly-line approach to enlistment processing was discarded in favor of “Red Carpet Treatment.” With the services now relying exclusively on volunteers who had other options for post-high school education and employment, procedures were implemented to make efficiency, courtesy and personalized service the watchwords. Carpet was indeed laid on station floors, government-issue furniture was out, and walls were better decorated. The sergeants ceased their barks.
Medical Evaluation
USMEPCOM has always had three core mission areas: medical evaluation, aptitude testing, and administrative processing. In the command’s emblem, the five corners of the pentagon represent the initial five services, the red represents medical, the blue represents testing, and the checkered background represents administrative processing.
As a result of a project designed to consolidate many medical standard regulations into one single document and clarify military enlistment standards, the Army published Regulation 40-501, “Standards of Medical Fitness,” in 1961. In 1986, the DoD first published department-wide medical fitness standards for all services in the first edition of DoD Instruction 6130.4, originally titled, “Criteria and Procedure Requirements for Physical Standards for Appointment, Enlistment, or Induction in the Armed Forces.”
Since USMEPCOM’s inception, medical fitness standards have been and are 
continuously refined. Some major changes include the addition of mandated screening for HIV in the 1980s and the incorporation of International Classification of Disease – ICD-9 – codes in the 2005 DODI 6130.4.
After congressional legislation required interoperability of medical records within DoD, USMEPCOM fully launched MHS GENESIS on March 10, 2022. With it, applicants entering the Armed Forces have one electronic health record from the point of service entry, improving communication and comprehensive patient medical care. The consolidation of health information into a single platform increases efficiencies for beneficiaries, military dependents, and health care professionals.
In May 2025, the command launched the first AI-generated summary tool for military applicant Health Information Exchange encounters. The tool summarizes medical documents, allowing doctors to spend less time digging through records and more time engaging meaningfully with applicants by generating a concise list of medical conditions for prescreen providers to consider.
Recently, in alignment with updated DoD policy, USMEPCOM implemented updated medical processing procedures following the Secretary of Defense’s July 11, 2025, memorandum, “Medical Conditions Disqualifying for Accession into the Military.” The new procedures identify conditions disqualifying for accession at every stage of the medical screening process – prior to, during and after an applicant’s MEPS medical exam, thereby reducing unnecessary processing and ensuring consistent application of medical standards across the organization.
Aptitude Testing
Like medical evaluations, aptitude testing for enlistment developed before and after USMEPCOM’s inception. In 1968, DoD first offered the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, or ASVAB – at no cost – to high schools and postsecondary schools. The paper-and-pencil test was part of the Student Testing Program and not initially used for military recruiting purposes.
In 1976, DoD introduced ASVAB (with 12 subtests) as the official aptitude testing for
all the services. Around that time, USMEPCOM assumed responsibility for the administration of the ASVAB-based Student Testing Program in the nation’s high schools and post-secondary institutions. By 1979, USMEPCOM began automating ASVAB scoring.
Also in 1979, the DoD initiated a joint-Service project to develop and evaluate the feasibility of implementing a computer-adaptive version of the ASVAB, called the CAT-ASVAB. After years of extensive research and evaluation, the first MEPS began using CAT-ASVAB in June 1992, and others followed. The CAT-ASVAB moved testing forward with immediate and accurate test results, individualized applicant testing, improved test security, reduced administration, and flexible start times. The DoD introduced the Interactive Computerized Adaptive Test – iCAT – in 2010. This version ran on a web-based platform.
In fall 2025, USMEPCOM began a new program that allows school staff to be trained and administer the computerized ASVAB Career Exploration Program. The program is an expansion of the existing School Staff Testing Program for paper-based tests and transfers test administration from MEPS personnel to school staff using the online CEP iCAT platform.
The technology that drives processing
Technology to gather, store and transmit applicant processing data within the organization and with other military and federal systems has advanced exponentially from the days of the typewriter and the punch card, and now impacts nearly every aspect of USMEPCOM operations. The once state-of-the art Wang word processor has long been replaced by the personal computer and now cloud storage.
The 1970’s introduced the Dura punch tape machine that recorded applicant data. It yielded the floor to the IBM magnetic card typewriter, which in turn was replaced by the Command’s first mainframe computer, the IBM 370/165. By 1982 UNIVAC System 80 microcomputers linked all stations to the headquarters.
When the command was planning its move from Fort Sheridan to Naval Station Great Lakes, it needed to plan for its own computer center. The reinstatement of peacetime registration precipitated the Selective Service System’s needed for a computer center as well. These events resulted in the creation of a Joint Computer Center that supported USMEPCOM and the SSS. Located in the building that housed USMEPCOM Headquarters and one region of the SSS, about 20 command personnel and 20 contractors kept the JCC operational 24 hours a day until 1995.
The MEPCOM Integrated Resource System, or MIRS was originally identified as the initiative to begin planning for a replacement of UNISYS System 80 in 1984. Initial plans called for total automation – to include operations, administration and support. When the implications of such a system were realized, MIRS plans were changed to specifically address the applicant operations mission. MIRS was fielded in 1994.
For almost 30 years, USMEPCOM accomplished its daily mission on an information
technology system of systems made up of 10-12 applications. Primarily built in the 1990s, these applications became outdated and difficult to maintain or modify. Efforts to complete an end-to-end replacement of these systems began in 2017 and USMEPCOM crossed the “finish line” of its most recent stretch of a modernization in December 2024.
With the launch of the Recruit Travel application, the command completed a modernization effort to replace the outdated legacy systems with a standardized, cloud-based system of systems, improving military processing in testing, medical, and enlistment areas. Key advancements include the deployment of USMIRS 1.1, MHS GENESIS, and applications like CEP-MIRS, Recruit Travel, and the Applicant Journey Tracker, which streamline processes, enhance data security, and improve user experience.
USMEPCOM began its strategic planning efforts and published its first Mission, Vision, Guiding Principles and Strategic Goals in 1995. Over the years, with new leaders, all but the mission has been adjusted. The command’s 2023-2033 Strategic Plan focuses on mission, vision, values and charts a future operations concept aligned with medical, testing, processing, human capital and resource management goals.
The people behind every Oath
Today, as it has throughout five decades, the approximately 3,000 professionals who staff USMEPCOM provide the military services with new recruits who meet DoW standards, ensuring the continued military manpower needed to face the nation’s defense challenges today and tomorrow.
Initially the USMEPCOM commander position was at the 1-star level and eight held command at that rank. In 1993, the first O-6 took command and was the first of 13 O-6 commanders to date. Sector commanders hold the rank of O-6 as well. Fifteen E-9s have held the rank of USMEPCOM Senior Enlisted Advisor.
From 1976 until 2004, USMEPCOM was staffed with a 50/50 mix of military members and Department of the Army civilians. In the beginning, military staffing was proportionate to the service branches’ annual projected accession workload. In 1976, the command was staffed – 46 percent by the Army, 23 percent Navy, 19 percent Air Force and 12 percent Marine Corps.
In the early 1980s, the command conducted a formal study to assess management and operational capabilities to accommodate an increase in the accession workload. During those years, staffing was 3,235 – 1,925 military and 1,310 civilians.
In 2004, Program Budget Decision 712 changed the face of USMEPCOM – taking it from a 50/50 mix to a command made up of 80 percent DA civilians. Program Budget Decision 712 was DoD’s sweeping and ambitious plan to move military members from desk duty to frontline, deployable jobs. With PBD 712, USMEPCOM converted 926 E-6 and below military billets to civilian positions.
Today, having the right people in the right positions is a key driver of success, so manning is a command priority. The “Big 5” positions at the MEPS are the drivers of processing capacity and include providers (doctors, physician assistants, nurse practitioners), medical technicians, and human resource assistants.
There is only one military command in the United States that accomplishes the mission of military enlistment processing. In fact, military representatives from other nations, including the United Kingdom, visit USMEPCOM and MEPS to gain a greater understanding of the mission.
The command’s workload has steadily increased in the past few years. From Fiscal Year 2023 to 2025, check-ins increased 33 percent; accession contracts increased 28 percent; prescreens increased 55 percent; medical exams increased 51 percent, and enlistment ASVABs increased 39 percent.
Anticipation of and response to change has been at the center of the command’s focus since its inception. In the past 50 years, numerous stations have closed, opened or relocated, workload levels fluctuated, as have staff composition, staffing levels, and perhaps most significantly, technology.
In April 2025, USMEPCOM launched “MEPS in a Box” which enables a processing site to be rapidly deployed in underserved or distant locations. The initiative brings testing, exams, and other processing components to the recruit rather than requiring traveling hours to an established MEPS. After multiple iterations and hundreds of applicants being processed at MEPS in a Box site, the initiative is supporting the command’s “MEPS without Borders” goal of greater agility and responsiveness.
As USMEPCOM turns 50 years young, the command has an accomplished past and a bright future indeed.
*This history uses “Department of Defense/DoD” to describe history prior to the September 2025 name change to “Department of War/DoW” and uses the updated name after that date.
By Christine Parker, April 2026
The Joint Meritorious Unit Award was authorized by the Secretary of Defense on June 10, 1981 and was originally called the Department of Defense Meritorious Unit Award. It is awarded under the authority of the Secretary of War to joint activities for meritorious achievement or service, superior to that which is normally expected, for actions in the following situations; combat with an armed enemy of the United States, a declared national emergency, or under extraordinary circumstances that involve national interests.
USMEPCOM has received the award four times in its fifty-year history. Military personnel assigned during the period of the award are authorized to wear the ribbon on their service dress uniform in accordance with service-specific policies.
Jul 1, 1982 to Apr 30, 1985 - Documentation
Jan 1, 2005 to Dec 21, 2007 - Citation
Apr 16, 2016 to May 24, 2018 - Citation
Mar 1, 2020 to Feb 28, 2021 - Citation