Soldiers Encounter Mysteries monster in Vietnam war
The Vietnam War is in full swing, and backhome in the USA hordes of civilians are protesting the US's involvement in what's seen as a pointlesswar almost every day. The government pushes back against these protests,stating that it's important to cut off communism wherever possible before it spreads like aplague. For twelve men on patrol deep in the junglesof South Vietnam though, none of this matters. What matters now is their own lives. It's near dusk, and the men are cautiouslymaking their way through thick jungle back to their firebase. They're not far now, only two or three milesaway, but are wary of running into an enemy ambush.
The Viet Cong and their North Vietnamese allieshave taken to hitting American patrols on the way back, when the men are exhausted afterhours fighting the jungle and being eaten alive by mosquitoes and other creepy crawlies. Suddenly a rifle opens up, and then a dozenmore. The GIs hit the ground and return fire. A quick heads up reveals that no one's beenhit. It's hard to see the enemy, but it's gettingdark enough that muzzle blasts reveal each shooter's position- the men must be carefulto kill their target without being killed in return. In the midst of the firefight one of the Americansoldiers suddenly notices a large hulking figure, which he had assumed was a big bush,stand up and immediately flee across the battlefield.
The creature is impressive, clearly at leastseven feet tall and with a body that's pure muscle. Thick, matted fur- not, not fur, it's hair-covers the creature's entire body as it crosses the jungle in huge bounding steps. The American is in shock and briefly forgetsall about the ongoing firefight. On the other side of the battlefield there'san alarmed cry from the Viet Cong fighters and the firing dies off briefly. The enemy soldiers shout a word over and overagain and suddenly one of them fires on the creature. Several American soldiers see the creatureget struck by enemy fire, roar, but keep on going! The Viet Cong are in a near full panic nowand begin to retreat, allowing the Americans to flee the ambush. The next morning the American GIs relate theirencounter to their commanding officer and ask for permission to investigate the ambushsite. Working their way back to the battlefield,the men quickly identify the location of the firefight, and where the beast was originallyseen. As they search they make a grisly discovery-an enemy Viet Cong soldier lays dead, a frozen look of horror still on his face. The body has been mutilated, practically rippedapart, and there's not a single bullet wound on it. This encounter is not new to American forcesoperating out of Vietnam though, and the locals quickly inform the soldiers that what theyencountered was a creature they have known of for generations- the Batutut, Ujit, orNguoi Rung, otherwise known as the jungle people. These creatures have been known by the localsto inhabit the deep jungles of Vietnam and Southeast Asia, exactly the places that havenow been turned into battlefields. Initially American troops quickly make allusionsto the Bigfoot, or Sasquatch, of North America. By the time of the Vietnam War Bigfoot maniawas already sweeping the United States. Tracks of a giant biped humanoid had beendiscovered in Northern California at a construction site a few years ago, and tales of the elusiveSasquatch had begun to flood the media as witnesses, silent for years for fear of ridicule,begin to come forward with their tales.
Experts claim that the creature is a hoax,and that no such great ape could possibly still be living in North America without beingdiscovered, and yet the footprint evidence continues to pour in from all across the nation,and eyewitness accounts along with them. Strangely, the creature seems to not be uniformin size or even appearance across North America, with witnesses in the north and west of thecontinent describing it as having black or reddish fur, while witnesses in the southof the United States describing it as having light brown to reddish fur. What is intriguing is that the descriptionsof the beast, and even the tracks photographed or collected as plaster casts, all seem tofit the general geographic description of the mystery animal. Could all these people be in on one big hoax? These Rock Apes though, as the GIs begin tocall them, couldn't be more different than the Sasquatch of back home. These mystery apes stand about six feet tall(1.8 m), a full foot to two feet shorter than the North American bigfoot, and their furis brown and black like a sasquatch but bare in the knees, the soles of the feet, hands,and the face, more akin to an orangutan or a chimpanzee. Behaviorally, they couldn't be further fromthe North American bigfoot.
While American sasquatches are widely saidto be gentle, even shy creatures who rarely ever act aggressively, these rock apes arehighly aggressive and bold creatures, often charging straight at humans who trespass intotheir territory. With their powerfully muscled bodies, theresult of being caught by one of these creatures is perhaps best evidenced by the sorry conditionof the Viet Cong fighter the American soldiers in our opening story discovered. Much like Bigfoot though, the rock apes aresaid to be active at night or at dusk, which could help to explain why they are so rarelyever seen- and why they've avoided scientific detection. Unlike Bigfoot though rock apes are knownto travel in pairs, while Bigfoot is rarely ever spotted in a group. With a jungle full of dangers though perhapsit's no surprise that rock apes see a need to travel in groups. Sightings of rock apes were surprisingly commonthroughout fighting in Vietnam, by both sides of the conflict. One NVA general became obsessed with capturinga specimen alive and even ordered a hunting party be formed, though most of the soldiersand locals were too terrified of the animal to ever approach one willingly. It would be American soldiers who nicknamedthe creature the rock apes for the way that the animals would hurl back rocks thrown atthem, and on several occasions, even live grenades! Skeptics claimed that American troops weresimply seeing orangutans and misidentifying them in the thick jungle, except that whileorangutans did once inhabit Vietnam, they went extinct there thousands of years ago.
Another candidate for the rock ape was thegibbon, which was native to Vietnam and inhabits the area in large numbers. The sheer size disparity between a rock apestanding nearly six feet tall and a gibbon which can weigh as much as twenty pounds thoughmakes this highly unlikely. The unsettling conclusion may simply be thatat least some rock ape sightings were real, and not the result of misidentification. The creatures were at least real enough andspotted often enough that one hill where they were frequently sighted ended up being calledmonkey hill by the Americans. Interestingly, the creatures were never spottedin the jungles near the coastal areas, or close to civilization, and instead only inthe deepest parts of the Vietnamese jungle.
This perhaps explains why the animals wereso fearless towards humans- their extreme isolation in the deepest jungles would haverarely ever brought them into contact with humans, aside from the few villagers livingextremely isolated lives. Seeing as prior to the war no sizable humanpresence had ever entered these jungles for long, it's perhaps not surprising that combatantson both sides might have stumbled across an entirely unknown great ape species. The encounters would continue to pour in throughoutthe war though, and sometimes with a very large amount of eyewitnesses. One encounter as told by soldiers of the 101stAirborne, details an encounter between a troop of rock apes and an entire infantry platoonthat was settling in to a quick lunch. Apparently the apes were suddenly spottedbreaking clear of the jungle and advancing along a trail on the ridge of Nui Mo Tau,a large hill that would end up being the site of the Battle of Phu Loc.
The American infantry immediately thoughtthe figures were viet cong and opened fire with M16s, machine guns and even grenade launchers. The figures quickly fled into the jungle. Unlike a normal animal though, these rockapes appeared to rush through the trees almost as if waiting for a break in the gunfire tocharge the American troops, even stepping out briefly to howl and flash huge fangedteeth at them. The creatures also let loose with howls andbarks, much like angry dogs- a behavior that is common to many apes and even attributedto the North American sasquatch. Eventually the soldiers realized they werenot firing at people and ceased their fire, and as the animals retreated they searchedthe area but found no bodies. Another incredible account relates the storyof a full-blown battle between rock apes and American marines. Taking place on Hill 868 in Quang Nam Province,the battle began with a unit of Marines deep in the jungle radioing back to their HQ thatthey had spotted movement in the jungle near their position.
The Marines- likely a patrol made up aroundthirty men total- were told to hold their position and not give themselves away, simplyobserve the enemy's movements and radio back. After a few minutes, the Marines nervouslyradioed back stating that they had been surrounded by what looked like hairy, bipedal humanoidcreatures. Likely assuming the creatures were nothingmore than the gibbons so common in the area, the Marines were told to simply toss rocksat them in order to scare them away. Upon throwing rocks though, the creaturesbecame enraged and began tossing rocks back at the men. Suddenly what sounded like a pitched battlewas heard over the radio, complete with men yelling, inhuman screams, and the sounds ofgunfire. A patrol sent to reinforce the Marine unitdiscovered a battlefield littered with several corpses of rock apes, along with many injuredMarines.
This account however relies entirely on eyewitnesstestimony, as no evidence of these rock apes was ever recovered. The veracity of this particular tale is inserious question, though given the nature of the fighting in Vietnam it may come asno surprise that nobody took the time to try and recover a body. Still, such a stunning incident should comewith more hard evidence than scattered eyewitness testimony, and for us we're willing to filethis story away as a possible tall tale. Hard evidence for the rock ape wouldn't appearuntil 1974, a year before the end of the Vietnam War. With both sides reporting the existence ofthe creature, Professor Vo Quy of Vietnam National University decided to lead a NorthVietnamese expedition into the jungle to search for it. While he never discovered a real rock ape,he did photograph and make plaster prints of extremely curious tracks. The tracks were said by locals to have beenformed by the Batutu, a creature that they had shared stories of for generations.
Curiously, the print, much like many Bigfootprints, shows features that are strikingly similar to apes, while being much larger thanthat of any known ape. As has been said of many Bigfoot prints thoughtto be authentic, if these were hoaxed then they would have to have been hoaxed by someonewith detailed knowledge of ape physiology. Sightings of the rock ape continue to thisday, and though no hard evidence has been gathered, perhaps the best evidence for theexistence of these creatures is the sheer amount of reported sightings. Then there's also the fact that these arecreatures believed to be real flesh and blood animals by locals, rather than mythical spiritsor animals of legend. Skeptics point to a lack of remains or physicalevidence as reason to doubt its existence, and yet these are the same skeptics who werestunned in the early 1990s by the discovery of the Saola- an animal described as an 'asianunicorn'. (use photo) The Saola was spoken of by natives for generationstoo, and yet science denied its existence until a body was finally found in 1992.
Since then the animal has been officiallyclassified and is considered one of the rarest mammals in the world. Perhaps if a large mammal like the Saola canlurk in the deepest jungles undiscovered for thousands of years, then so too can an equallyrare and terrifying beast such as the Vietnamese Yeti- the legendary rock ape. Did you like this video? Do you want to see more? Go click on this video right now for moregreat content from your friends at The Infographics Show or click this video over here. You’re going to love them both so pick oneand go watch right now!
The Viet Cong and their North Vietnamese allieshave taken to hitting American patrols on the way back, when the men are exhausted afterhours fighting the jungle and being eaten alive by mosquitoes and other creepy crawlies. Suddenly a rifle opens up, and then a dozenmore. The GIs hit the ground and return fire. A quick heads up reveals that no one's beenhit. It's hard to see the enemy, but it's gettingdark enough that muzzle blasts reveal each shooter's position- the men must be carefulto kill their target without being killed in return. In the midst of the firefight one of the Americansoldiers suddenly notices a large hulking figure, which he had assumed was a big bush,stand up and immediately flee across the battlefield.
The creature is impressive, clearly at leastseven feet tall and with a body that's pure muscle. Thick, matted fur- not, not fur, it's hair-covers the creature's entire body as it crosses the jungle in huge bounding steps. The American is in shock and briefly forgetsall about the ongoing firefight. On the other side of the battlefield there'san alarmed cry from the Viet Cong fighters and the firing dies off briefly. The enemy soldiers shout a word over and overagain and suddenly one of them fires on the creature. Several American soldiers see the creatureget struck by enemy fire, roar, but keep on going! The Viet Cong are in a near full panic nowand begin to retreat, allowing the Americans to flee the ambush. The next morning the American GIs relate theirencounter to their commanding officer and ask for permission to investigate the ambushsite. Working their way back to the battlefield,the men quickly identify the location of the firefight, and where the beast was originallyseen. As they search they make a grisly discovery-an enemy Viet Cong soldier lays dead, a frozen look of horror still on his face. The body has been mutilated, practically rippedapart, and there's not a single bullet wound on it. This encounter is not new to American forcesoperating out of Vietnam though, and the locals quickly inform the soldiers that what theyencountered was a creature they have known of for generations- the Batutut, Ujit, orNguoi Rung, otherwise known as the jungle people. These creatures have been known by the localsto inhabit the deep jungles of Vietnam and Southeast Asia, exactly the places that havenow been turned into battlefields. Initially American troops quickly make allusionsto the Bigfoot, or Sasquatch, of North America. By the time of the Vietnam War Bigfoot maniawas already sweeping the United States. Tracks of a giant biped humanoid had beendiscovered in Northern California at a construction site a few years ago, and tales of the elusiveSasquatch had begun to flood the media as witnesses, silent for years for fear of ridicule,begin to come forward with their tales.
Experts claim that the creature is a hoax,and that no such great ape could possibly still be living in North America without beingdiscovered, and yet the footprint evidence continues to pour in from all across the nation,and eyewitness accounts along with them. Strangely, the creature seems to not be uniformin size or even appearance across North America, with witnesses in the north and west of thecontinent describing it as having black or reddish fur, while witnesses in the southof the United States describing it as having light brown to reddish fur. What is intriguing is that the descriptionsof the beast, and even the tracks photographed or collected as plaster casts, all seem tofit the general geographic description of the mystery animal. Could all these people be in on one big hoax? These Rock Apes though, as the GIs begin tocall them, couldn't be more different than the Sasquatch of back home. These mystery apes stand about six feet tall(1.8 m), a full foot to two feet shorter than the North American bigfoot, and their furis brown and black like a sasquatch but bare in the knees, the soles of the feet, hands,and the face, more akin to an orangutan or a chimpanzee. Behaviorally, they couldn't be further fromthe North American bigfoot.
While American sasquatches are widely saidto be gentle, even shy creatures who rarely ever act aggressively, these rock apes arehighly aggressive and bold creatures, often charging straight at humans who trespass intotheir territory. With their powerfully muscled bodies, theresult of being caught by one of these creatures is perhaps best evidenced by the sorry conditionof the Viet Cong fighter the American soldiers in our opening story discovered. Much like Bigfoot though, the rock apes aresaid to be active at night or at dusk, which could help to explain why they are so rarelyever seen- and why they've avoided scientific detection. Unlike Bigfoot though rock apes are knownto travel in pairs, while Bigfoot is rarely ever spotted in a group. With a jungle full of dangers though perhapsit's no surprise that rock apes see a need to travel in groups. Sightings of rock apes were surprisingly commonthroughout fighting in Vietnam, by both sides of the conflict. One NVA general became obsessed with capturinga specimen alive and even ordered a hunting party be formed, though most of the soldiersand locals were too terrified of the animal to ever approach one willingly. It would be American soldiers who nicknamedthe creature the rock apes for the way that the animals would hurl back rocks thrown atthem, and on several occasions, even live grenades! Skeptics claimed that American troops weresimply seeing orangutans and misidentifying them in the thick jungle, except that whileorangutans did once inhabit Vietnam, they went extinct there thousands of years ago.
Another candidate for the rock ape was thegibbon, which was native to Vietnam and inhabits the area in large numbers. The sheer size disparity between a rock apestanding nearly six feet tall and a gibbon which can weigh as much as twenty pounds thoughmakes this highly unlikely. The unsettling conclusion may simply be thatat least some rock ape sightings were real, and not the result of misidentification. The creatures were at least real enough andspotted often enough that one hill where they were frequently sighted ended up being calledmonkey hill by the Americans. Interestingly, the creatures were never spottedin the jungles near the coastal areas, or close to civilization, and instead only inthe deepest parts of the Vietnamese jungle.
This perhaps explains why the animals wereso fearless towards humans- their extreme isolation in the deepest jungles would haverarely ever brought them into contact with humans, aside from the few villagers livingextremely isolated lives. Seeing as prior to the war no sizable humanpresence had ever entered these jungles for long, it's perhaps not surprising that combatantson both sides might have stumbled across an entirely unknown great ape species. The encounters would continue to pour in throughoutthe war though, and sometimes with a very large amount of eyewitnesses. One encounter as told by soldiers of the 101stAirborne, details an encounter between a troop of rock apes and an entire infantry platoonthat was settling in to a quick lunch. Apparently the apes were suddenly spottedbreaking clear of the jungle and advancing along a trail on the ridge of Nui Mo Tau,a large hill that would end up being the site of the Battle of Phu Loc.
The American infantry immediately thoughtthe figures were viet cong and opened fire with M16s, machine guns and even grenade launchers. The figures quickly fled into the jungle. Unlike a normal animal though, these rockapes appeared to rush through the trees almost as if waiting for a break in the gunfire tocharge the American troops, even stepping out briefly to howl and flash huge fangedteeth at them. The creatures also let loose with howls andbarks, much like angry dogs- a behavior that is common to many apes and even attributedto the North American sasquatch. Eventually the soldiers realized they werenot firing at people and ceased their fire, and as the animals retreated they searchedthe area but found no bodies. Another incredible account relates the storyof a full-blown battle between rock apes and American marines. Taking place on Hill 868 in Quang Nam Province,the battle began with a unit of Marines deep in the jungle radioing back to their HQ thatthey had spotted movement in the jungle near their position.
The Marines- likely a patrol made up aroundthirty men total- were told to hold their position and not give themselves away, simplyobserve the enemy's movements and radio back. After a few minutes, the Marines nervouslyradioed back stating that they had been surrounded by what looked like hairy, bipedal humanoidcreatures. Likely assuming the creatures were nothingmore than the gibbons so common in the area, the Marines were told to simply toss rocksat them in order to scare them away. Upon throwing rocks though, the creaturesbecame enraged and began tossing rocks back at the men. Suddenly what sounded like a pitched battlewas heard over the radio, complete with men yelling, inhuman screams, and the sounds ofgunfire. A patrol sent to reinforce the Marine unitdiscovered a battlefield littered with several corpses of rock apes, along with many injuredMarines.
This account however relies entirely on eyewitnesstestimony, as no evidence of these rock apes was ever recovered. The veracity of this particular tale is inserious question, though given the nature of the fighting in Vietnam it may come asno surprise that nobody took the time to try and recover a body. Still, such a stunning incident should comewith more hard evidence than scattered eyewitness testimony, and for us we're willing to filethis story away as a possible tall tale. Hard evidence for the rock ape wouldn't appearuntil 1974, a year before the end of the Vietnam War. With both sides reporting the existence ofthe creature, Professor Vo Quy of Vietnam National University decided to lead a NorthVietnamese expedition into the jungle to search for it. While he never discovered a real rock ape,he did photograph and make plaster prints of extremely curious tracks. The tracks were said by locals to have beenformed by the Batutu, a creature that they had shared stories of for generations.
Curiously, the print, much like many Bigfootprints, shows features that are strikingly similar to apes, while being much larger thanthat of any known ape. As has been said of many Bigfoot prints thoughtto be authentic, if these were hoaxed then they would have to have been hoaxed by someonewith detailed knowledge of ape physiology. Sightings of the rock ape continue to thisday, and though no hard evidence has been gathered, perhaps the best evidence for theexistence of these creatures is the sheer amount of reported sightings. Then there's also the fact that these arecreatures believed to be real flesh and blood animals by locals, rather than mythical spiritsor animals of legend. Skeptics point to a lack of remains or physicalevidence as reason to doubt its existence, and yet these are the same skeptics who werestunned in the early 1990s by the discovery of the Saola- an animal described as an 'asianunicorn'. (use photo) The Saola was spoken of by natives for generationstoo, and yet science denied its existence until a body was finally found in 1992.
Since then the animal has been officiallyclassified and is considered one of the rarest mammals in the world. Perhaps if a large mammal like the Saola canlurk in the deepest jungles undiscovered for thousands of years, then so too can an equallyrare and terrifying beast such as the Vietnamese Yeti- the legendary rock ape. Did you like this video? Do you want to see more? Go click on this video right now for moregreat content from your friends at The Infographics Show or click this video over here. You’re going to love them both so pick oneand go watch right now!
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