Today, I took a trip to the gun shop as I needed to pick up a holster. While there I also purchased a single barrel 12 gauge shotgun. I was walking through town carrying my unloaded weapons and this guy sitting in front of a store ask me a question. He inquired about buying my shotgun. I explained to him I had just purchased it to replace one I sold a few days prior.

We continued to talk, the guy was a friendly chap, and during our conversation he mentioned he was in the military and served in Vietnam.

I told him about some of my uncles who had also served in Vietnam and ask him if he had ever had to eat monkey. One of my uncles had told me about eating monkey while in Vietnam. He confirmed that he had indeed eaten monkey and then what he told me next was unexpected.

He said, "what was bad was those (expletive) rock apes!". Of course, with me in the cryptozoology field I was aware of the reports from Vietnam. The veteran continued, "They were as big as a man. They would throw rocks at us. We'd throw it back, it would throw the rock back at us."

I did not make him aware that I was into studying such things. I just stood quietly and listened.
He continued his story. "After throwing the rocks back and forth a few times, we'd throw a grenade and the (expletive) thing would go over to pick it up and BOOM!, it would blow it apart." he said with a slight chuckle.

I stood there and talked with him a few more minutes and finally I had to go. So I thanked him for his service and told him to have a good day.

Can you imagine being a young soldier in a very foreign land and seeing these bipedal, human looking apes coming at you. Then add in they are throwing rocks at you. Of course, some of our soldiers probably had never seen a real monkey before, little alone ones throwing rocks.

There are many, many stories about Rock apes in Vietnam and the surrounding regions. Some consider it a known animal but if you read some of the stories and some of what the locals say, I'm not sure we can put "Rock Apes" to rest. If it is indeed not a known animal, then just what is it?

I hope you enjoyed that little story.

Thanks
~Tom~ 

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