Salute!
Not all that bad, Buster
As in the movie, they would pick a large clearing, and when possible, the high ground. Not all of the two VietNams or Laos was thickjungle that you had to hack thru. Most of the floor beneath the triple canopy was fairly open and resembled a forest. Down south, starting maybe 70 or 80 miles north of Saigon the terrain was very flat except for some solitary hills by the Cambodian border. As you went north you had a classic mountain range with rolling hills toward the sea and west to the Plain of Jars.
I did most of my work in III and IV Corps, where it looked like you see in most movies - rice fields and a few rubber tree plantations. So LZ prep was fairly strightforward.
Gums recalls...