Recruiting operations are conducted throughout the United States, U.S. territories, and at U.S. military facilities in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

The Command employs nearly 15,000 military and civilian personnel, the majority being Soldiers that are screened and selected to serve on recruiting duty for three to four years.

Due to severe shortage of troops after the first year of the war, conscription was introduced by both the Union and the Confederacy to enable continuing of operations on a thousand-mile front.

The realization that volunteers could never again be depended on for service was clear in the post-war analysis, but the dependence on them prevailed until the commencement of World War I when President Woodrow Wilson, argued for America's exclusion from the European war, believed that there would be found sufficient volunteers to meet the nation's military needs.

[5] There were two primary reasons for President Wilson approving conscription: he recognized the efficiency and equity of the draft over the difficult-to-manage system of inducting and training volunteers, and that by opting for conscription, he realized the possibility of blocking one of his leading political critics and opponents, former President Theodore Roosevelt, from raising a volunteer force to lead in France.

However, there was a society-wide support for the conscription during World War II, in part due to efforts of the National Emergency Committee (NEC) of the Military Training Corps Association led by Greenville Clark who became known as the "Father of Selective Service."

The Congress, faced with imminent need to mobilize, still took three months of debate until finally passing the Selective Training and Service Act (STASA) of 1940 on 16 September 1940.

[8] With the end of the Korean War, the draft remained in force, but became increasingly unpopular, although it continued to encourage volunteers and selected the bare minimum of annual recruits.

[10] With these political consequences in mind in 1969, President Nixon appointed a commission, led by former Secretary of Defense Thomas Gates, "to develop a comprehensive plan for eliminating conscription and moving toward an All-Volunteer Armed Force."

However, the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021 made it difficult for recruiters to access high schools and colleges which are the Army's traditional recruiting ground, followed by a strong post-pandemic economic rebound and businesses offering employee benefits comparable to those offered by military service has made the military a less attractive option for many young people.

Led by Maj. Gen. Deborah Kotulich, the 25-person task force worked with military leaders and civilian experts in recruitment and talent acquisition to come up with recommendations to improve the Army's accession systems and processes.

USAREC headquarters is located at Fort Knox, Kentucky, and provides the strategic command and support to the Army's recruiting force.

More than 400 officers, enlisted members and civilian employees work in one of the command's eight directorates and 14 staff sections, conducting administration, personnel, resource management, safety, market research and analysis, and public relations operations in support of the recruiting mission and the Soldiers and civilians working to achieve it.