Fantastic write up. I love these documents. Besides being a great display item, so much can be gleaned from the detailed info on them.

Luckily for such a rare uniform, the missing DI is ultra common...I bet you could find an exact match.  

Very limited use, hence their rarity. Guessing only used in high profile postings or for VIP visits. Very eye-catching uniform to say the least. One of my favorite "out of the woodwork" finds. 

The photo of the 180th Zippo in your original post is no later than early 1967. The #251 Patent is clearly visible. The vast majority of sellers on Ebay couldn't correctly date a Zippo to save their lives. 2001 Zippo base stamp is entirely different. They are confused.

Interesting….for me…this is a “first” for me.  I have never seen one like this and I’m a retired USAF MSgt.  The entire group is WOW!

The following picture I came across on the forum and shows the uniform in official use. Note the Officer collar devices in use. I wish to credit the original poster however I can't find where it came from.  Correction: credit of this image belongs to forum user RANGER-1972.

I checked the listing and the seller had posted this information: • Military Commemorative Zippo (2001): Features the "Big Windy" 180th Assault Support Helicopter Co. insignia. Stamped with Zippo date code "A 01".   Not an old one then? 

I saw a canning jar full of those in a collection.  They were pickled in alcohol, formaldehyde, or something.  Was the color of tea.  Couldn’t quite see what was going on until he ‘sloshed’ it.     Pass.   

First time I went to the Philippines, my wife and I drove to a remote mountainous area called Sagada (Luzon).  There was a culture there that stacked their dead in hardwood coffins in the mouths of large caves in the area. They also hung them on the sides of cliffs.  The locals told my wife and I not to take photos of the coffins because of the curse. That was all I needed to know. I got no pictures.   Back in WW2, toward the end of the war, enterprising G.I.s and their Filipino comrades began a black market in Japanese skulls. The target market was replacements that wanted a meaningful souvenir to take back home. Thing was, most or at least many of the skulls were not Nihonjin. They were Filipino skulls taken from unguarded family crypts, or cemetery’s.    it was around this time many of the skulls back in Sagada were looted from the caves. I shudder to think of the havoc that old curse played on those collectors.