The Defense Manpower Data Center has a number of responsibilities with respect to DoD. Mary Dixon, the director of the DMDC joined Jared Serbu for an interview on Federal News Radio's weekly defense program,On DoD.

The DMDC is probably most well known for its management of the common access card, the ubiquitous "CAC" card that DoD personnel and contractors carry.

DMDC also has some other major responsibilities: It's a vast storehouse of information of all types on military personnel, and does a lot of work providing analysis of that data. It handles a major survey program to gather data from military personnel, runs the ASVAB vocational testing program, and handles eligibility determinations for a wide range of DoD benefits.