US top officials warn of looming crisis in military recruit processing system

The US military's ability to process new recruits is under growing strain as the Military Entrance Processing Command (MEPCOM) struggles to hire enough civilian staff to operate its facilities at full capacity.

MEPCOM, which oversees the essential academic and medical screening of tens of thousands of military applicants annually, has already seen 20 of its 65 stations reduce their processing capacity due to persistent staff shortages. Although not yet an emergency, officials warn the situation could deteriorate rapidly without urgent intervention, Caliber.Az reports, citing foreign media.

One senior MEPCOM official likened the current hiring dilemma to a storm warning: “The command can get by with current staffing levels,” the official said, but warned that the “lethargically slow” pace of hiring may result in a “critical shortfall of recruit processing staff within five or six months.”

Last year, MEPCOM conducted over 300,000 medical exams, up from 215,000 in 2022—a figure the command has already surpassed in the first half of 2025. Despite this growing demand, high turnover, particularly in large metropolitan areas, continues to plague facilities. “High costs of living and low government salaries lead to high turnover,” sources said, adding that this forces MEPCOM to rely heavily on continuous new hiring—something the current system is failing to support.

Delays are further exacerbated by President Donald Trump’s federal hiring freeze. While MEPCOM has been granted an exemption to recruit essential staff, “the additional approvals needed for those hires have created a bureaucratic quagmire,” one source said, with some hires delayed by up to six months.

“If the current staffing attrition rate continues,” another senior official warned, “more locations will be forced to lower the number of applicants they can screen daily.”

The situation is particularly alarming for major recruiting hubs. Fewer than 20 MEPCOM locations process more than half of the country’s applicants, and many of these are among the hardest hit by hiring issues.

“There's a pressure on one side to increase efficiency processing applicants at the MEPS,” one official said.

By Vafa Guliyeva