November 9, 2011

Nguoi Rung Reclaimed: Vietnam Vets’ Rock Ape Living History Project

It happened again last week. With the re-opening of the International Cryptozoology Museum, lots of new visitors came. One was a Vietnam vet who said he was “in country,” at a base, when many of his fellow soldiers would tell of their dusk encounters with the “Rock Apes.” The Vietnamese called them the “Nguoi Rung.”

The gentleman had no doubt that many more stories of the “rock apes” are out there among vets who have never talked about their sightings.

Due to conversations with this veteran and others, the International Cryptozoology Museum, for Veterans Day 2011, is announcing the creation, development, and ongoing “living history project” to gather Vietnam Veterans (of all countries) stories, writings, books, and encounter remembrances of the Rock Apes.

Nguoi Rung

An artist conception of the Nguoi Rung, the Vietnamese name for the Rock Ape.

Last March came yet another confirmation left by a Cryptomundian identifying himself as “VietVet”:

In country, 65-66, 70-71, 71-72.
Rock Ape sightings. Central highlands and up.
Humped jungle in line plt. (squad size 6-10) and of course Recon and LLRPS.

Your sightings were more likely from out in the bush (infantry) and not base camp, better known as (REMF’S).

Sightings limited for reason of proximity and location, not to mention reports.

Example the RTO gets on the horn and our Lt. reports to the commander, “Enemy contact 3 kia’s. NVA or VC?”
“No we killed 3 rock apes.”
“Don’t the damn fools know the difference between the enemy and a bunch of monkeys.”

Looks nice on a sitrat (situation report), doesn’t it?
A lot happens and [is] never reported and/or not considered significant, especially in a war zone.

Yes, they are real; how do I know?
I saw them and I say they are real; big deal, don’t mean nothin’.
VietVet

In the book, Very Crazy GI – Strange but True Stories of the Vietnam War, Vietnam War veteran Kregg P. J. Jorgenson tells of how he had an actual sighting of a short, red-haired, hairy, upright anthropoid, which he says soldiers in Vietnam called a “Rock Ape.” One even was said to be captured in Dak Lak Province in 1971, and in 1974 a North Vietnamese general, Hoang Minh Thao, requested an expedition to find evidence of the creatures, but it was unsuccessful.

Other soldiers, we are told, down through the years, have told of their own Vietnam War era encounters with these cryptids.

Incidents are to be found on the Internet, such as this one here:

All except one was light brown to reddish brown in color, and about 3 1/2 four feet  tall. One dark, almost black, male remained fighting to protect the others retreat and he was flying through the branches and rushing the men with his teeth bared. He was one very brave animal, I’ll tell you that. Michael Kelley

And here:

When Poncho got control of himself, he told me that he had been walking back to the bunker when he noticed a bush that hadn’t been there before. He bent over to see it better and it SNORTED at him and he fired. What he had encountered was the ubiquitous Rock Ape of Vietnam. I would come to learn that they were nearly everywhere, and quite fearless. That is what we had heard near the wire that night.Robert “JungleVet” Baird

Names like “Monkey Mountain” apparently referred not to local monkeys but to the Rock Apes.

Nguoi Rung

Source: The Field Guide to Bigfoot and Other Mystery Primates

Loren Coleman About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.

Filed under Cryptomundo Exclusive, CryptoZoo News, Eyewitness Accounts, Proto-Pygmies