She was born in the Marinette Marine Company yard in Wisconsin when her plates were cut off. She was one of sixty-five ordered for the United States Navy. Its war service life began in 1965 when it was designated for landing duties as an ATC, armored personnel carrier, in Vietnam. Like most of the sixty-five barges built, she was mistreated and sometimes mishandled by others during her service. Although she was only one of thousands of insignificant landing craft ever built, she would leave an everlasting memory in those who served in her. The little Mike 8 Class LCM, nicknamed Zippo after being converted to carry a flamethrower, entered the war in November 65 with Old Glory Streaming. It was with certainty, as its builders had proudly stated on their construction sheet, entirely made of American steel. I first met her on Thanksgiving Day in the Year of Our Lord 1966, when I arrived at an old French colonial shipyard. The site was located at the head of a mud-banked side canal off a river in the Mekong Delta, in an area abundant in canals. The majority of this land was occupied by old abandoned French plantations. At their peak, plantations produced a variety of agricultural products such as pineapples, sugar cane and rubber. As there were few roads, the French began building canals to transport crops to the main shipping ports on the rivers. The canals were naturally built using the classical Western European style, straight, narrow and deep. At the shipyard she had been refitted and fitted with a newer style turret flamethrower, which had been bolted and welded to her deck. On the turret, some eccentric had crudely painted the name Zippo in white letters....... middle of paper ...... presented as an overly complicated paper plan, and sat down expecting what the small craft works like the line battleships of yesteryear. Unfortunately, superiors have proven beyond doubt that they tend to forget, or ignore, the very first principle of a war plan. KISS “Keep it simple, stupid” and the second but even more important “After the first round, even the best of plans can quickly fall apart”. And at this point, the ability to think quickly and adapt can mean the difference between acceptable military success and total military disaster. This factually proved true in the case of Zippo, as in its short existence it has certainly experienced both successes and disasters. However, life never seems to be that simple. Ultimately, no amount of quick thinking and adaptation on the part of his crew managed to save Zippo from his untimely demise..