Remerciements
Je tiens
tout particulièrement à remercier James,
collectionneur américain, pour sa patience,
sa gentillesse, pour l'aide apportée sur
les techniques de gravure utilisées au Viêt-nam
et son érudition concernant l'histoire des
premiers briquets gravés.
Merci
à toi Dan, pour ces longues soirées passées
à évoquer ton Vietnam entouré de fidèles
vieux potes, pour toutes ces bières qui
ont aidé à recréer l'ambiance.
Un
grand merci à mes amis Miss Beauty et Mr
Luck de Saigon pour leur aide lors de la
visite des ateliers de gravure au sud Viêt-nam.
Et
enfin merci à tous mes collègues de Pittsburgh
qui ont pris la peine de répondre à ma demande
d'informations.
Sans
leur dévouement ce site n'aurai jamais pu
voir le jour.
Toutes
les erreurs ou omissions sont de ma faute.
Si vous avez des informations ou des remarques
n'hésitez pas à me contacter.
©
R. Munoz Paris le 8 Decembre 2004.
Cliquez ici pour me contacter
!
Berto,
My first Zippos were purchased while was
a G.I. in Vietnam and I bought them on the
Vietnamese market, and they probably got
them from some G.I. who got it at the PX.
I remember vividly having two Zippos engraved
while I was in service with the 101st Airborne
Division's 1st Brigade "The Nomads
of Vietnam" Consequently both were
lost in the jungles of Vietnam, never to
have been found again
Believe me I
did indeed look. Many G.I. had their lighters
"taken" while at brothels in country
The bar girls always wanted them as souvenirs
"You souvenir me G.I." and they
could not pronounce the word zippo it came
out "shippo"
I am eager
to see your web page.
James
Hi
Bob,
Here is the information I gathered from
my husband, Andy, who was in the Marines
from 1969 to 1973. He was in Da Nang (Vietnam)
in 1971 for about 13 months. He did not
get his lighter until he was out of Da Nang.
He bought his Zippo in 1972 in Subic Bay,
Philippines. He bought it off a street vendor
and had it engraved with the following:
"We die at the hands of those who smile
at war". He made that up. He said he
was angry about being there and tired of
all the human suffering. They used machines
to engrave the lighters but Andy does not
know what kind they used. He did not have
the city, date or Vietnam engraved on his
lighter.
I
hope this information helps you. Good luck
Cindy
Bob,
Some answers to your questions about Zippo
Lighters & VietNam.The Zippo Lighter
I purchased in VietNam was bought in a PX
(Post Exchange) which is like a department
store. It was very rare for a Marine to
get to a place like that. I was there twice
in a 6 month period. My lighter was engraved
by the same means that they engrave lighters
now. I just told them what I wanted written
on it. Another means was to buy it on the
Black Market in one of the large cities
of VietNam such as DaNang, where they were
already engraved. There were a number of
sayings that were very popular at that time,
e.g. "If you're not with the one you
love, love the one you're with"-----"Candy
is dandy, but sex doesn't rot your teeth"------"Napalm
sticks to kids"-------"Kill them
all, let God sort them out" etc.-------**My
lighter only ad my name on it. I hope some
of these answers were of help to you.
Sincerely, Jack.
Hi
Robert,
Sorry for the delay I am getting back to
you, I wanted to check a few things before.
The only true way to be confident, is with
the acid etched zippo's, these can't be
reproduced, although they are trying. The
new style of fakes are currently appearing
on the web, they appear to acid etched but
with closer inspection they are actually
machined engraved, these can be identified
by very fine lines in the engraving (there
is two up at the moment - but because of
the quality of the photos you cant see the
engraving, unless you have seen them before),
and they tend to stuff up their dates on
the lighters.
Note: TF-116 River Patrol Force was established
in Apr 66.
Hope this helps, all the best Ian.