When you think Rock Ape your mind instantly goes to the RAF Regiment, but not so fast. Rock Apes, Batatuts or Nguoi Rung, people of the forest, are evidently a form of apelike, bipedal cryptid living in the jungles of far east Asia. Travelling in packs, the apemen would attack US patrols along the Cambodia/Laos border. A veteran states:
Rock apes are the real thing. I saw a band of them up on "Carlie Ridge" in Quang Nam Province in the spring of 1970. It was nightfall and I saw them through a Starlite scope. 10-15 of them headed away from us up a steep incline. They weren't VC because they walked as a pack side by side in the jungle and not in a military type line. They all looked to be very broad bodied and up to 5 ft tall.
He was lucky, Nguoi Rung were allegedly known to hurl rocks at people invading their territory and attack potential aggressors with utter, apelike ferocity. There were apparently so many sightings towards the end of the war that the Communist Vietnamese Party sent scientists to investigate.
One, Dr. Vo Quy from Hanoi, discovered footprints and made a cast of the imprint, which was wider than a human foot and too big for an ape. Another expert, Tran Hong Viet, discovered similar prints in 1982, in remote jungle.
Witnesses report that Rock Apes grow up to 5' in height, are covered with brown fur, broad shouldered and show no fear, or very little, of humans. It's suggested their remote location accounts for this; having never met the ferocity of Homo Sapiens, the apemen attacked in ignorance. Or, possibly, they regarded seemingly weaker humans as easy prey.
Regardless, some of the few people who read this mind blog have been to those jungles. Have you seen or heard of these creatures? There's plenty of evidence that they're there, and I feel that they're possibly living fossils, like Coelacanths but hominins, remnants of our evolutionary tree, alive today. Or not.
Your Call,
LSP
Well, I had an uncle in Vietnam who told me that these things were real. He was in the Marine Corps stationed up by the DMZ. He said they threw rocks at night-patrols sometimes and the commanders told the men that they were wild monkeys. The next time I go up to the city, I'll stop by a fave Vietnamese restaurant to flirt with the waitresses (ummm...I mean have dinner) and inquire of the older folks if they know of this creature.
ReplyDeleteWhere I live today is Sasquatch territory and there's reason to believe it's more than a local legend. Given how mammal species tend to be smaller in tropical regions, I wonder if this is a variant of that species?
There is a similar species that inhabits Washington, DC. Not quite as much fur, but alcoholic to the man/woman/other, and constantly engaging in odd and deviant sexual practice. Somehow they've managed to actually get money for nothing and chicks for free with the ability to steal untold amounts more easy peasey.
ReplyDeleteFortunately they don't throw rocks. I'm thinking that would simply take too much effort on their part and why bother really when they're not endangered.
I'd be real happy if all the ones in the District of Criminals did was throw rocks. Here lately they've been throwing poo of a very unpleasant description and plenty of it.
ReplyDeleteAhem.
I never saw any when I was there but I served with some folks who very much believed they existed and verified the rock throwing. I wonder if anyone knows any Hmong or Montagnards? They'd know for sure if anyone would.
Night Watch, this is fascinating. Let's find out more, seriously.
ReplyDeleteGood luck at the restaurants :)
I agree, Kid. Rock Apes were allegedly capable of throwing huge stones at members of our military. Some dispute this, maybe they should look to DC.
ReplyDeleteGood question, WWW. My feeling is that LL would know.
ReplyDeleteRock Apes=Baboons.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, you could shoot them if you wanted to because they were aggressive and territorial. If you decided to put a firebase on a hill that they claimed, they'd infiltrate it, get tangled in the wire, set off boobytrap claymores (you can command detonate them or set tripwires), and so on. Then some GI, fresh in from the world, would have to go out and untangle and bury them because they'd stink in no time.
The French called some of their canned rations Viande De Singe (monkey meat). Take a baboon, kill it, cut up the meat, marinate it with vin rouge, and can it. The troops swore that's what it was. Of course, they also had vin-o-gel, a type of Pinard that was jelled and could be reconstituted with water. Most of the Frenchies just ate the jell-o straight without adding water. It made the monkey meat go down easier.
Thanks for the call, LL, and the clarification. Let's look beyond, to a script, wherein bizarrely aggressive monkeys overrun a US position.
ReplyDeleteBut what am I saying? A documentary's obvs in order.