Where can I even start. This isn't a pen, it's a round stick of heaven itself that facilitates anything your imagination can put on paper. This pen has been around since 1968 ( I think ). It's remained unchanged and good thing. The mil spec requires that it write one continuous mile while enduring a temperature change of -46 to 128 degrees Fahrenheit or something like that. Wow. The diameter of the pen feels great in your hand, not too big and not too small. I came upon this humble instrument when I first arrives at the aerospace academy in Oklahoma City. It was waiting for me on an empty desk, in an empty room on our first day at the academy. Since then I've stole these whenever I've found them. Thankfully Amazon sells these, also made by the blind by skill craft in Wisconsin, and one of the Carolina's if I remember right. You may come across a pen that clicks weird and the pen stays extended, but you can't hep but overlook the small quirk because of its historic greatness. I mean they are assembled by the blind you can't expect them all to be perfect!

The iconic Skilcraft US Government has been in continuous production for 50+ years now virtually unchanged. It's the last pen standing of its kind - the 50-60-70 "modern" industrial design school plastic body with chromed metal construction. It's even the last to use the formerly ubiquitous all brass tubular thin refill. The only detail that has changed is the metal band has picked up body color stripes along the way. You probably first came in contact with them in the military like me where they were everywhere.

Design: The overall design of the US Gov't obviously took inspiration from the early 60's era Papermate Piggy Back/Malibu (production ended in early 90's). The designers slimmed the profile a tad, changed the ring to a band, streamlined the clip and added a taller, slimmer, more cylindrical button. Excellent. It's not retro, it's the genuine article. It's a small pen by modern standards and has no grip or fatigue relieving surfaces. Some might find writing at length with it unpleasant. On the other hand, the slim design fits nicely into any pen hole or loop in a uniform, shirt etc. which is exactly what it was designed for.

Construction: Common for the era, the design of the US Gov't is executed in glossy black ABS plastic body and head with chromed steel button, clip, band and tip. The barrel unscrews revealing a standard for the era type straight, thin, brass tube refill. I did notice a couple of flaws. There are slight irregularities in the head molding that can be felt or seen at the right angles and the gloss on a couple the barrels have marred spots - which might be shelf-wear and not a defect. Neither are noticeable at conversation distance nor affect the functionality of the pens in any way.

Writing: Writing is responsive with light pressure. A little heavier pressure makes a bolder line. It has a bit of tactile feedback but I wouldn't call it scratchy. No hard starting (once the ball is primed), skipping, broken lines, blobs or blotches whatsoever. I've never known one to leak. It's not the smoothest ballpoint I've ever used and nothing close to a rollerball or gel. It's a medium level performer.

Ink: The ink color is a pretty standard ballpoint purple-black with a red sheen. It's an indelible ink - impervious to water and bleach washinging. Alcohol does make it explode but the writing is recoverable and any altered document altered would be obvious. It passed a freezer test. I haven't tested the upper limit of its temperature range or writing length.

Bottom line: These are a bit pricey for what they are at near the $1/pen mark which approaches the bulk cost of the absolutely fantastic Uni-ball 207. The government pays maybe a little over half of that from what I can tell ($.50-.55/pen) and there aren't better bulk ballpoints out there in that price range. I highly recommend these because they're US made by the blind, have a timeless iconic design and solid performance.

These pens are the best deal in weatherproof pens, especially when compared on performance and price to brands like rite-in-the-rain and fisher space pen.

Always a good old standby. Used for years in the service and still a good buy today for a basic no frills pen

05/26/18 So far so good. I work as a mail carrier and go through pens a lot. Dropping, leaving them in the heat/sun and writing on different surfaces. I have only used one pen since I've received them and the one pen has gone through a lot already and so far it hasn't let up. No bleeding and no malfunctions. I'll update this in a bout a month.

Update: 06/19/18 I've been using the same pen since I wrote the original review and I'm glad to say it's still holding up. It did bleed a little bit after leaving it sitting on the dashboard of my vehicle but it still holding ink and hasn't bled since. I've dropped this pen so many times and have written with it everyday on multiple surfaces. The only thing that slightly bothers me is the clicker...to extract the pen it works fine but when i want to retract it the pen gets stuck and I have to click it multiple times or really hard to get it to retract. The other problem I'm having is that it dries up fast when writing in a vertical position but when it does that I just tip the pen downward a little bit and then it will write again for a few seconds...enough time for me to fill in my notice form. All in all these are good, cheap and reliable...so long as I don't lose them the pens seem to last a good amount and even then from what I've read you can buy replacement cartridges for these.