What was the countryside in Vietnam like?

Answer 1

The countryside of (South) Vietnam was like certain places in the United States (remember, Vietnam is still the planet Earth, a tree is a tree, and water is still water, etc.). It had the humid heat of the deep south ( the US southern states), along with the swamps of Florida, and the hills of some of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado or the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. But that's not what made it unique. What made it unique was going back into time. It was returning to America of those above mentioned mountains and swamps, forests, etc. WITHOUT the civilization of traffic signs, interstate highways, barbed wire fences, no tresspassing signs, locked gates, toll boths, park ranger buildings, forest ranger buildings, parking lots, (a shopping mall we would have appreciated though, hunger was our constant companion) etc. The land (described above) was in the same condition that Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, Lewis & Clark, Jedediah Smith, Kit Carson, and the rest, saw during their life times in America. It was an UNSPOILED LAND; an UNTAMED LAND. When we moved in our tank or APC (M-113 Armored Personnel Carrier) we moved through wilderness. Few roads, and the few that existed were dirt. No signs, follow the setting sun (with the help of a map and compass-no GPS back then). And most important of all, we moved and lived with our buddies. Without the security and comradeship of our brothers in arms, the journey would have been FAR LONELIER and less memorable!