Posted on 04/11/2006 8:04:28 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
A friend of mine didn't serve in Vietnam, but his brother did, and told him that there were monkeys who would gang up on and eat drunk guys staggering home.
I find this a little hard to believe.
Probably not pingworthy. But check your mail. :')
Jane Fonda was there.....could be the monkey?
I heard of monkeys attacking birds, but I never heard of a man eating monkey other than possibly a baboon which will attack a human.
PS It could happen if the guy was carrying alot of bananas?
Not likely. There aren't any monkeys large enough in Vietnam that I can think of.
I heard a lot of stories about "Rock Apes", though I never saw a one.
I've seen things on the National Geographic Channel that show that African monkeys hunt,kill and eat other (non-human)animals.
Subject: Re: Question. Re Rock Apes
Date: Sat, 25 Nov 2000
We ran into them frequently and I have a friend whose Recon position on Dong
Den was overrun one night by hundreds of them.
The made a noise that sounded just like a dog barking. In fact, you'd swear
it was a dog.
One time on a ridge of Nui Mo Tau, about 15 km S of Hue, about eight of them
came walking up a trail and surprised a squad of our platoon while it was
stopped for lunch. All hell broke loose because they looked very much like NVA
soldiers in khaki (same height, size and color) as they came around a bend in
the trail about 10 meters from the unsuspecting GI's.
I was with the other two squads of the platoon eating our lunch on the far side
of a clearing about 50 meters wide that separated the two elements. The trails
wound up the ridge and then through the clearing.
All of a sudden and without any warning, the lone squad opened up with every
thing they had...M-16's, M-79's and hand grenades. I grabbed about 300 rounds
of gun ammo and my M-60, then ran across the clearing with the platoon Sgt.
(everyone else stayed home!) to the cover of a huge, toppled tree that was
lying on the far side and close to the point of contact. The Sgt. and I looked at
one another, nodded and then came up over the top ready to blast away but
what we saw instead blew us away!
The firing had been non-stop and we fully expected to engage a sizeable enemy
force, but instead, we found ourselves looking at our men, some seated, some
standing, some kneeling, and firing at these ghostly images swooshing around
in brush and trees (some off the ground by that point) in all directions. 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.
Then, as if someone had snapped their fingers, they all just seemed to
disappear. Zip, the male turned and flashed into the trees and was out of site in
a second.
This may sound very strange to you, but although I had no or little concern
about killing the enemy, the killing of innocent animals turned my stomach and
could enrage me if done without being a necessity. But I searched the site and
but found not a drop of blood, which totally amazed me given the amount of
firing that had gone on. I wonder to this day if the men were shooting just to
scare the Rock Apes away or whether they were really just poor marksman!
The men who'd suffered the surprise looked a bit worse for wear, and I'm sure
a few had to wash their shorts out as a result of the unwelcome visit. It really
scared the crap out of them, I kid you not!
We, on the other hand, did suffer one casualty. A trooper had an eardrum
blown out by the muzzle blast of the first shot fired because the trooper who
first saw the apes just picked up his M-16 and fired without saying a word, and
the muzzle was right next to this poor fellow's ear when he did.
Apart from that, I have all the same questions your student does and would love
to hear just exactly what sort of apes they were?
M-60 Mike
Cheers,
Michael Kelley
D Co 1st/502d Infantry, 101st Airborne Div 69/70
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Thanks Pharmboy for that story and stylin19a for the initial Rock Ape info. A little more to go on.
I remember that battle... still makes me laugh today.
It seems that just about everything has at least an occasional desire for meat but may be poorly designed or without the skills to normally capitalize on the desire. I have personally seen "strictly vegetarian" animals like geese and rabbits eat meat when the opportunity arises. If we have a scenerio starting with something that already occasionally acquired meat for itself and waged war, like a primate, and then created a territorial food shortage through chemical defoliation compounded by the dry season and placed this territory next to a base then there well might be the potential for it to happen. Even one such event could easily become part of widespread battlefield lore.
Heres a theory for a it never actually happened origin...
To my understaning the Vietnamese referred to the Montegnards as moi (baboon). Had an early interpreter in theater overheard and through unawareness, directly but not contextually interpreted a story about baboons jumping an NVA unit, instead of Montegnards jumping an NVA unit, then that alone could start quite a myth amongst bored and scared troops.
Many people have mistaken ideas about monkeys.. I've seen many varieties that can become quite vicious when they want to .. Everyone I've known who has owned a monkey of any type has been bitten at least once.. a full grown male chimpanzee is nothing to mess with when angered...
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