1st Brigade of the 101st Airborne fought all over too, but that was in 1965-1967. After that, more of the division arrived and they settled in for operations in the Central Highlands, notably the A Shau valley and the infamous Hamburger Hill battle.

Mike Forces operated on a country-wide basis. These were companies of ethnic minorities (Nungs (Ethnic Chinese), Hmong, Cambodians, Montagnards) in Vietnam that were Special Forces-trained and led as strike/relief elements to support other operations. They did search and rescue as well. MACV-SOG also used much smaller groups of SF-led groups of native troops for recon of the Ho Chi Minh trail in Laos and in Cambodia as well, though the latter was even more hush-hush with only foreign weaponry and without air support if trouble happened.

SEALs tended to keep their operations in the Mekong Delta, where ST-2 was particularly effective. Australians and ROK Marines had a real reputation out there too.

I love the idea of writing new characters for a new scene. Because that would give us the flexibility to play a MACV-SOG element doing a Shining Brass mission in Laos, and then shift to the Battle of Hue in 1968, and then down to the Mekong Delta and up to the Central Highlands. All very different wars, really.

Edit: Also, I loved the movie Bat-21. I'm not sure if it got the same kind of kudos as other movies, but I loved how it portrayed search and rescue crews and the way the operation rolled out. It gave a person a great appreciation for the harrowing nature of CSAR operations and what the helicopter pilots/crew went through in that war. That's a fun idea for a scene.