The United States Military Entrance Processing Command (USMEPCOM) is a Major Command of the Department of Defense, which screens and processes applicants into the United States Armed Forces. USMEPCOM is headquartered in North Chicago, Illinois and operates 65 Military Entrance Processing Stations (MEPS) located throughout the United States.
USMEPCOM is a joint service command under the direction of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Military Personnel Policy, who in turn reports to the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness.
These stations process applicants for military service, putting them through a battery of tests and examinations to ensure that they meet the standards required to serve in the United States Armed Forces. These tests include vision, hearing, blood, and blood pressure tests, a pregnancy test (for women), an examination by a doctor, a height and weight check, urinalysis, a breathalyzer test, a moral/background examination, as well as the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB). If applicants are deemed qualified for military service, they will also meet with a service counselor, negotiate and sign enlistment contracts, and swear or affirm an entrance oath.
The command's motto is Freedom's Front Door, signifying that a service member's career starts when they walk through the doors of the MEPS.
USMEPCOM has been awarded the Joint Meritorious Unit Award twice. The first award was for the period of 1 July 1982 until 30 April 1985; the second award was for the period of 1 January 2005 until 31 December 2007.
The current commander of USMEPCOM is Captain Eric W. Johnson, USN. The commander of the Eastern Sector is Colonel Neal F. McIntyre, USA and the commander of the Western Sector is Captain Theresa A. Lewis, USN.
Famous quotes containing the words united states, united, states, military, entrance and/or command:
“The United States is just now the oldest country in the world, there always is an oldest country and she is it, it is she who is the mother of the twentieth century civilization. She began to feel herself as it just after the Civil War. And so it is a country the right age to have been born in and the wrong age to live in.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“To the United States the Third World often takes the form of a black woman who has been made pregnant in a moment of passion and who shows up one day in the reception room on the forty-ninth floor threatening to make a scene. The lawyers pay the woman off; sometimes uniformed guards accompany her to the elevators.”
—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)
“On the whole, the great success of marriage in the States is due partly to the fact that no American man is ever idle, and partly to the fact that no American wife is considered responsible for the quality of her husband’s dinners.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“The domestic career is no more natural to all women than the military career is natural to all men.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“The raven himself is hoarse
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“It is often necessary to know how to obey a woman in order sometimes to have the right to command her.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)