Cryptomundian’s Vietnam Rock Ape Encounter
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on August 3rd, 2014
An artist conception of the Nguoi Rung, the Vietnamese name for the Rock Ape.
Cryptomundian mikevusmc69 submitted the following:
this is about the rock ape in vietnam–i was in nam in august of 1969 in the Marines–we were on a squad patrol about 2 clicks from the DMZ in the dong ha mountain area–one day one of my buddies wanted me to see something–there up in a tree about 30 feet high was what i would call a monkey but he said it was a rock ape– about 25 yds away at the top of this tree–it was black and about 3 foot tall maybe more– couldn’t really tell–well we just watched it and it just watched us–no one shot it and after awhile we lost interest and went away–thats my rock ape story–
Co-founder of Cryptomundo in 2005.
I have appeared in or contributed to the following TV programs, documentaries and films:
OLN's Mysterious Encounters: "Caddo Critter", Southern Fried Bigfoot, Travel Channel's Weird Travels: "Bigfoot", History Channel's MonsterQuest: "Swamp Stalker", The Wild Man of the Navidad, Destination America's Monsters and Mysteries in America: Texas Terror - Lake Worth Monster, Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot: Return to Boggy Creek and Beast of the Bayou.
Rock apes are one of those cryptids you often hear dismissed as just a hoax, but the jury is still out.
Interesting mikevusmc69. I was in country from May of 69 to May of 70 with the 600th Photo Sq. out of Bien Hoa. Your encounter is one of the first I’ve heard that seems authentic and you guys were pretty nice to the ape for being so close to the DMZ. I spent some time in the field on various photo missions and never saw a rock ape but I’m not surprised.
Good report and my best,
Naturally, I’m wondering what primates may already be native to the area. Naturally, I’m wondering why a species that seems SO good at being undetected by science or well organized exploration, would just sit upon a tree branch, looking back at the humans that observe it.
These are fair questions, are they not? Or do you (or anybody else) think that skeptics are all just robotically debunking idiots?
All the best Craig
thescaly1: remember that the main thing keeping cryptids out of the light of public recognition is mainstream denial of the evidence.
They don’t have to be particularly elusive (and in fact there are reports of aggressive behavior by rock apes). We’re taking care of that for them, plenty well.
Thanks DWA, i’m not just checking out blogs that I enjoy, but learning a thing or two in the process.
My question is this: What evidence is it that I am in denial of?
Even the report of this roughly 3(!) foot tall thing in the tree, is just a report. I’ve seen very strange things that were not all the result of alcohol or my mind’s wish to identify what it doesn’t understand. I don’t expect much answer to exactly what it was, the symbol I saw high in the sky which seemed constructed of two straps/columns of flame, as if the elements (eternal witnesses of the oaths of mankind) displayed a symbol in the sky for me to observe.
This observation, sober and viewed for 15 minutes by me, I don’t expect to prove in anyone’s mind the reality of nature’s eldritch, symbolic power/spirit. Instead I must work with the facts, no airborne advertising was operating at the time, no military jets (which I had seen above that desert town before) managed to leave after-burner flames in perfectly symbolic form in the sky high above me for over 15 minutes.
But enough of my own strange report, what facts am I ignoring in order to remain skeptical?
All the best
thescaly1: denial of the evidence by folks like you and me means pretty much nothing. It’s the refusal of mainstream science to even consider the possibility that pretty much ensures that a primatologist – or any scientist – seeing an anomalous primate in the wild will just clam up about it. Some have submitted anonymously to databases, but that’s not gonna get us anywhere.
Soldiers in “stinking tropical jungle” might not consider a 100-foot centipede or a pterodactyl all that unusual. I find myself wondering how many US servicemen saw saola in the wild (not confirmed until 1992). There just seem to be enough reports of these that scientists might just keep the door ajar and not judge until all the facts are in. That’s all.
Until then, elusiveness is a help, but something science is in denial about doesn’t need to be that much more elusive than the animals we know about. All that needs to happen is that anyone who saw one is just told he or she had to have seen something else.