Original Item: One-of-a-kind. Lighters could be customized with regimental cyphers and engravings, and were purchased by soldiers returning home as a memento of their military service in the specific theater of operation.

This is an incredible vintage genuine ZIPPO brand lighter that was manufactured in 1966. This lighter is engraved on both sides. The front reads as follows:
U.S. ARMY and features a United States Army Eagle.

The reverse side of the lighter is an engraved with a 9th Infantry Division insignia below which read:


Lighter appears to be in functional condition, though we have not added fluid. The underside of the lighter bears the ZIPPO logo and Bradford, PA and 8 hash marks or vertical lines which denotes the manufacture date as 1966.

A note on how to verify that this is an authentic VIETNAM era zippo lighter- To determine a ZIPPO's with correct date marks (before 1975) check the zippo date according to the dating card supplied by the zippo firm. For the years between 1966 and 1975 (Vietnam war ended in April 1975) the codes are: four vertical bars each side of the italicized zippo logo for 1966. Then the bars were removed alternatively first on the right and then on the left. So for 1967 four bars on the left and three on the right, three each side for 1968 and so one until 1973 last year with vertical bar coding. Lighters from 1973 have one bar on the left and nothing on the right. In 1974, the code marks turn to slashes; four slashes on each side of the italicized zippo logo and in 1975 only three slashes on the right part.

This particular lighter has four vertical bars on the left and four more on the right of the ZIPPO logo meaning it was manufactured in 1966!

The 9th Infantry Division during the Vietnam war the division's units often served with the Mobile Riverine Force and other US Navy units that made up the Brown Water Navy. Its area of operations was in the rivers and canals of the Mekong Delta from 1967 to 1972. Operation Speedy Express was one significant operation in which the division took part during the war and was one of 22 major combat engagements with North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong main force units as well as thousands of small contacts during this period during division's presence in Vietnam. Operating deep within the Viet Cong–controlled Delta, the 9th Infantry Division of the U.S. Army was charged with protecting the area and its population against Communist insurgents and ensuring the success of the South Vietnamese government's pacification program. Faced with unrelenting physical hardships, a tenacious enemy, and the region's rugged terrain, the 9th Division established strategies and quantifiable goals for completing their mission, effectively writing a blueprint for combating guerilla warfare that influenced army tacticians for decades to come.

The 9th Division was reactivated on 1 February 1966, and arrived in Vietnam on 16 December 1966 from Fort Riley, Kansas, and its major units departed Vietnam on 27 August 1969 (HHC & 1st BDE) to Hawaii; 27 August 1969 (2nd BDE) to Fort Lewis, Washington; 12 October 1970 (3rd BDE) to Fort Lewis, Washington.

On deployment the division was assigned to the III Corps Tactical Zone of Vietnam where it commenced operations in the Dinh Tuong and Long An provinces (6 January-31 May 1967) in Operation Palm Beach. 1970 Tan An Headquarters Base camp receives routine mortar fire and small arms fire from Viet Cong. Attacks continued until 9th Infantry Division departed Tan An.