This paper comments on the 1 July 1996 memorandum from TACOM (MG Andrews) to OASA (Research, Development, and Acquisition), responding to a memorandum dated 22 March 1996 from the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Procurement.

The tone and content of the TACOM memo suggest that the individual(s) who drafted the document have apparently not read the SecDef memo directing the services to take advantage of off-the-shelf items, nor the recently enacted Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act. Those documents make it clear that milspec-driven acquisition is no longer the DOD-approved way of doing business.

Also overlooked or ignored in the drafting of the TACOM memo is the fact that the item at issue, MILITEC-1, is not without credentials that are entirely consistent with the dictates of the SecDef directive and FASA. In fact, tests and extensive experience by both government and commercial users have proven MILITEC-1's effectiveness in a wide variety of applications. DOD has issued National Stock Numbers to facilitate purchase of the product by all federal government activities, including military units, as well as by state and local law enforcement agencies, many of which require the use of MILITEC-1 exclusively.

Specifically, the references in the TACOM memo to "oil additives" are not germane to whether MILITEC-1 is or should be listed in the Army Master

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