Across the U.S., sites offering the initial enlistment test for potential recruits are being forced to close and reduce their hours due to cuts recommended by the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
In order to enlist in any of the military services, recruits take the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery test which assesses science, math, and language knowledge and helps identify potential military career paths based on their skills and interests.
In order to take that test, applicants go to one of the 65 Military Entrance Processing Stations (MEPS). If there are no stations in the area, potential recruits can take the ASVAB at satellite locations, or Military Entrance Testing (MET) sites at high schools, federal government offices, National Guard armories, or Reserve centers.
But due to the recent cuts to “non-essential” travel for civilians working for the Department of Defense, those sites have been forced to close or reduce their hours, officials with U.S. Military Entrance Processing Command, USMEPCOM, wrote in a Facebook post. Officials said they are looking into which sites “can remain operational using alternative means.”
The Pentagon suspended travel for DoD civilians in a March 5 memo referring to an executive order by President Donald Trump to implement DOGE-directed cuts across the government, including greater oversight on “non-essential” travel funded by the federal government.
The recent travel policy change suspended all current and future travel for DoD civilians with the exception of “travel in direct support of military operations or a permanent change of station.” It also directed civilians who were currently on “non-exempted travel” to return to their respective duty stations “as soon as feasible.” The memo stated that further guidance from DoD components would specify “additional mission-critical categories of exempted travel.”
“At a moment where military recruiting has faced a challenging history and is a major emphasis of the current administration, it would be short-sighted to reduce any access to entering military service,” said Kate Kuzminski, director of the Military, Veterans, and Society Program for the Center of New American Security, a Washington D.C.-based think tank.
Kuzminski said that despite the administration’s efficiency goals, “this is one area that is worth investing in” because MET sites help the services “cast a wide net” and expand the pool of recruits who might be in areas like Hawaii, where traveling to MEPS means island hopping.
“We don’t want to impose any roadblocks or hindrances or friction to the system such that a highly competitive candidate might be dissuaded from going through the process and joining the military,” she said.
MET sites have been seen as more convenient for recruiters assigned to stations far from their battalions or main military base. For instance, for Army recruiters assigned to a recruiting station in McAllen, Texas, the nearest MEPS is nearly 250 miles or four hours away in San Antonio, Texas.
The opening of new MET sites have also been seen as time savers in Oklahoma where a new testing site at Fort Sill potentially saved recruiters eight-to-nine hours so they didn’t have to shuttle prospective recruits 200 miles back and forth between a recruiting station in Lawton, Oklahoma and the Oklahoma City MEPS, according to an Army release from 2019.
“They can get back to work, prospecting, high school visits, building [centers of influence], and then come back and pick up the tests as soon as they’re complete, instead of driving all the way to Oklahoma City and then getting back home at 7:30, 8:00 at night,” Lawton recruiting station commander Sgt. 1st Class William Hill said in the release.
The impacts to MET sites come amid the military’s broader challenges recruiting from Gen Z, prompting the services to look at older recruits.
The Air and Space Force recently upped the age of accession age to 42 years old and the Army has revamped its recruiting enterprise, meeting its goal of 55,000 soldiers in fiscal year 2024 with recruits that skewed older and others who needed academic and fitness help through a new prep course. In fiscal year 2025, the service is planning to bring in 6,000 more recruits.
Kuzminski argued that the services need to eliminate any barriers or “friction” in the system for young people who are considering their future after high school — whether it be military service, community college or a job.
“There is some percentage of individuals who are interested in service, go through the whole process and they drop out because they’re waiting on a waiver and they need a job and a paycheck so they’re not going to wait any longer,” she said. “If I don’t have to travel to a MEPS station and I can go to a MET because it’s more easily available, that reduces a layer of friction and enables me to choose to join the military.”
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