Petrol lighter produced by Drago Paris, the French manufacturer of military insignia and regimental souvenirs. The front is decorated with a large relief of an Indochinese dragon forming the outline of French Indochina/Vietnam, a motif commonly found on souvenirs from the Indochina War period. The reverse bears a mounted badge of the Corps Militaire d’Interprétation des Langues Locales de l’Armée de Terre (CMILLAT), featuring three elephant heads above figures before a monument, symbols associated with service in Laos and the Indochina theatre. The base is marked DRAGO – 43 Rue Olivier Métra – Paris – Type Spécial.
The badge represents the Corps Militaire d’Interprétation des Langues Locales de l’Armée de Terre (CMILLAT), a corps of military interpreters and language specialists of the French Army. Members of this unit served with French expeditionary forces during the First Indochina War (1946–1954), assisting with translation, liaison and intelligence duties between French forces and local populations in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Souvenir items such as decorated lighters were often acquired by officers and specialists serving in the Indochina theatre.
