This Zippo is 50 years old. I know this because on the base it has the date mark for 1967 and it also has the PAT 2517191, so this means, as they stopped putting the PAT number on the base in the early part of 67 this is one of the last of that series. The lighter itself - on the front has \'Muong Thanh Valley\' and the Air America Crest. The Valley is in the north of Vietnam close to the Cambodia border and is where Bien Phu is situated, where the French were defeated by the Viet Kongin the 1950\'s. Air America was a CIA operation to transport arms and ammunition, special forces, CIA agents, food and even Opium. It came into operation in the late 1940\'s and ended in 1975. Because of the type of work the pilots were often hell raisers and alcoholics. There is a really good site with loads of history, [link removed by ].On the reverse of the lighter on the lid \'Jimmy loves Veronica forever\' and the body has AirAmerica logo with \'Fly the friendly skies of South East Asia\'.There are many Vietnam fakes, but after all my years of collecting I would put my life on this being original. It is in such good condition for it\'s age with only minor scratches on the back as you can see in the photos. The insert is original. The hinge has slight play in it as you would expect after good use and the spring is still good.

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