"Army officials acknowledged June 6 that TACOM’s message was poorly written and not intended as a directive on the use of PMAGs," according to a report from Military Times about the previously issued TACOM Life Cycle Management Command last April that only GI aluminum magazines were to be used for the assault rifles in the US Army. This led to confusion and resentment from soldiers in the field since a good number have been using the polymer M4 magazines and find them to be reliable.

If that's an army that issues poorly written directives, then what more if poorly written mission orders get issued to the soldiers? That'll be a disaster which will cost human lives. Anyway, this means good news for the soldiers as they can still use their Magpul PMAGs, and for Magpul still continuous orders beloved products.

According to the Military Times news story, "It’s still unclear why TACOM issued the message at this time, but sources say it might have something to do with the $10.7 million contract TACOM Rock Island awarded to Brownells Inc. in 2009 to produce 1.4 million improved magazines by January 2010." So it means commercial interests are at odds to the detriment of those whose lives depend on high performance equipment and achieve whatever mission is assigned to them. And in a follow-up blog entry at KitUp! that an Army spokesman said that limited tests that were conducted found that the improved M4 aluminum magazine is superior to the commercial ones. Though there were no test results provided.

Still, even with the clarifications on the directive, the issue remains a mystery. The PMAG has already developed a reputation among special operations units for its reliability and durability. It will be hard to separate the users from the PMAG as they have developed an attachment to it, whether it's going to be via an Army directive or not. When soldiers' lives depend on such a magazine, even a "new & improved" M4 aluminum magazine developed in house may take a while to be accepted.

Remember how the M16A1 fared in Vietnam that soldiers either asked for M14 rifles or carried with them unauthorized AK-47s? If it comes to deciding which is dependable, the soldiers out in the field will always go for the tried and tested in battles.