Mike,
I knew absolutely nothing about that country,except,it was a bad thing to get orders to go there,it was nothing but jungle,and they shoot at you.That's all that I knew when I was out at Aberdeen Proving Grounds in February 1967 for my AIT.(Just more training)
Well,I did get orders along with some others.We were then,those of us with orders to Vietnam,were given some extra training and a couple of real bullshit classes about the culture.However,what I distinctly remember is going over in a bus to Fort Dix,New Jersey to become familiar with the M16. Truly,when we were each given one for the day,our first impression was,this is a model of the real thing, because it's plastic.