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For the American men and their allies fighting in the jungles of Southeast Asia, encounters with tigers, poisonous reptiles, and massive insects, not to mention enemy soldiers and booby traps, these would certainly have been enough to deal with. But alongside these more conventional threats, soldiers returning from the jungles of Vietnam appear to have encountered something else.
Strange creatures which defy rational explanation. The devil creatures of Kuang Bin. I'm Luke LaManna and this is Wartime Stories. It was sometime in the evening.
A platoon-sized element of American soldiers had been inserted by helicopter into enemy territory north of the DMZ to conduct several days of search and destroy operations against the North Vietnamese Army. As their column formation slowly wound its way through the dark jungle, the point man at the front of the patrol suddenly stopped, throwing up his fist and quickly signaling to the men behind him to take a knee. He then ran his hand repeatedly across his throat.
possible enemy soldiers ahead, he was saying. Looking back towards the movement he had spotted, the men tried to make out anything that would identify the unknown threat, what appeared to be a group of four men walking in single file through the jungle. It was difficult to see them clearly as the thick jungle was hiding both groups from each other, but the soft moonlight coming through the canopy above is what gave these four men away as they otherwise appeared to be moving soundlessly.
These men were clearly experts at moving quietly through dense jungle, possibly a team of NBA sappers. After a moment, the American soldiers close enough to see them realized they couldn't make out any weapons or anything that looked like a military uniform. What they thought might be helmets were in fact the tops of these men's heads, as if they were all bald with the moonlight through the canopy reflecting the hairless outlines of their skulls. But was that moonlight?
Squinting through the trees, the soldiers could swear that these men were glowing, as if they themselves were emitting a soft aura of light. And whatever they were wearing was smooth and highly reflective and dazzling, as if they were wearing tight clothing made from snakeskin. But no. On second glance, the soldiers were shocked to realize it was their skin. Scaly, reptilian skin.
and far from being North Vietnamese soldiers whose average height was somewhere around 5.5 feet tall. These men, these "things", all four of them appeared to stand at least 7 feet tall. Entirely uncertain of what they were even looking at, the men at the head of their formation said nothing, holding their breath, waiting for something to happen. Either unaware of the American platoon's presence or choosing to ignore them entirely, these four beings kept silently walking by them.
until they eventually just disappeared into the jungle. With no reason to pursue them, the soldiers waited for the all clear before standing up. The point man checked his compass and they continued their own patrol, never catching sight of the strange creatures again. But another patrol evidently did. Hey Mac, go ahead and shut her off. Williams. Yes, Orn. Sun will be up soon. Go ahead and cut the engines. We'll drift with the current for a while. You got it.
Throughout the war, American teams were deployed deep behind enemy lines in the conduct of guerrilla warfare, hoping to cut off the enemy supply lines to stop the harassment of locals and to destroy any hidden bases and weapon depots they might find. A two-boat team of eight soldiers has likewise been inserted on a search and destroy mission, cruising in their patrol boats along a river just north of the DMZ, their mission lasting throughout the night and into the early morning hours.
At the onset of these night missions, a curfew had been implemented. Locals had been warned to remain at home since the men had trouble seeing in the dark and the standard procedure for these missions was to fire on anything that moved, with the presumption being that anyone caught out at night, whether on the river or in the jungle, would be an enemy soldier.
Enemy fire could break out from the shoreline at any time without warning, so the men were on constant guard, their eyes warily scanning the riverbank for any sign of movement or other indication of enemy presence. But now that the sun was coming up and visibility was improving, these men would have to begin operating under more restrictive guidelines for firing on unknown targets.
This might explain why, for some unknown reason, the patrol officer ordered the boats to the shoreline to conduct a short reconnaissance patrol away from the river. After leaving the boats and passing through a section of trees, the men reached the edge of a large jungle clearing. Perhaps they wanted to mark the location as a possible drop zone for future patrol inserts or extractions by helicopter. Whatever their reasons, these men couldn't help but notice that this section of jungle was eerily quiet.
They had long become accustomed to hearing the constant droning sounds of insects, monkeys, and birds. But now, this notable silence could mean the presence of human activity, possibly that of enemy soldiers. Perhaps that is what prompted their commander to conduct this investigation. Moving into the clearing in the dim light, at some point the team began noticing a number of piles of what appeared to be animal dung scattered around the area.
As they momentarily paused to examine these unusual piles, they suddenly heard crashing sounds coming from the nearby treeline. They were shocked to see what appeared to be several large humanoid creatures lumbering out of the dense brush, heading straight for them. These things were unlike anything they'd ever seen: tall, at least seven or eight feet in height, with bright yellow skin and three-digit hands and feet, with fingers and toes that ended in sharp claws.
The faces of these strange creatures were flat and sported large, snake-like eyes with only a couple of slits for a nose. The creatures were on top of them before they even had a chance to react, but surprisingly, these giant, yellow-skinned beings were said to have passed right by these men, seemingly not even paying attention to them at all, disappearing once again into the opposite treeline.
Completely spooked by the encounter, the frightened soldiers decided to immediately return to their boats. But as they moved through the section of jungle between the clearing and the river, they once again heard the loud sounds of jungle brush being trampled behind them. Whatever the creatures were, they were now following them. The men broke into a run themselves, their own loud movements now adding to the noise of the crashing sounds behind them, which indicated the creatures were drawing closer and closer.
Some of the men aimed their rifles behind them, firing blindly, but it seemed to have no effect on slowing down their pursuers. Terrified, bursting through the treeline and clambering into their boats on the riverbank, the men apparently continued to fire on these creatures, watching them twitch as the bullets seemed to bounce off of their hard, scaly skin. Confused and likely terrified themselves at the sight of these monsters, the coxswains quickly pulled their crafts away from the riverbank and throttled them away.
As they left, the men purportedly saw the haunting sight of dozens of these massive humanoids now gathered along the riverbank watching them leave. The shoreline seemed to be illuminated by a powerful glow emanating from the creatures' bodies. This next encounter is told from the perspective of the soldier who shared the story. "In 1970, I was serving as a corporal in the U.S. Army, deployed to South Vietnam in a region about 30 miles south of the DMZ.
At the time, I was second in command of a squad of soldiers. We had set up a bivouac in a jungle area that had a few steep hills. That evening, my section was ordered to patrol one of the small valleys west of the encampment. We moved out, led by our sergeant. Not long after entering one of the small valleys, we detected movement ahead of us. It seemed to be scattered activity, so we doubted it was Viet Cong, but we weren't positive.
We hunkered down for about 15 minutes, getting occasional glimpses of something moving within the trees and brush. There wasn't enough light to detect what we were observing, even though the moonlight was bright that night. After a while, the activity halted so we continued to slowly move through the valley. About this time, things got very strange.
As we approached a sheer rock wall on the side of a hill, it looked like someone or something had stacked large stones and boulders in the pass in front of us. There was also an opening in the hillside that looked like a cave entrance, approximately 5 foot high and 3 foot wide, narrowing at the top. While observing the passageway, it appeared to have been cut away by machinery. The edges were smooth with small, even-spaced grooves.
We were puzzled by this because we had never seen enemy caves like this, just underground tunnels. Our sergeant suggested that it might be a BC supply depot, so we started to assess how we were going to investigate the cave. We noticed a putrid odor emanating from the entrance. The only thing I can compare it to was rotting eggs and human decay. It was so revolting that a few of the soldiers were becoming ill and started to back away into the jungle, including our sergeant.
I was directing a light into the entrance in order to observe anything, but there was a haze that was impossible to see through. We had no idea what this thing was. So the entire squad took a position in the heavy brush approximately 150 feet from the entrance. Far enough not to be detected, but close enough to observe the cave entrance. We quietly remained there for what seemed like forever. The jungle was strangely calm, though we heard rumbling sounds coming from the distance.
It was really eerie. Our sergeant was sitting near me, talking to himself. It was obvious that he was frightened. I was looking at the rest of the squad. Each had wide eyes and was scanning the area. Tired as we were, it was clear that no one was going to doze off during this patrol. After several hours, dawn was approaching and it started to lighten up. I checked my watch. It was just before 0500 hours. Just then, we noticed movement in front of the cave.
A being, I first thought it was a man, moved through the entrance into the clearing in front of the cave. As it stood up from a crouch, it stood at least 7 feet high and started to look in our direction. At that time, another similar looking creature was moving out of the cave. The only way I can describe these beings is that they looked like upright lizards. The scaly, shiny skin was very dark, almost black.
Snake-like faces with forward-set eyes that were very large. They had arms and legs like a human, but with scaly skin. I didn't notice a tail, though they wore long, one-piece, dark green robes, along with a dark cap-like covering on their heads. I never noticed if they had anything on their feet. They were making these hellish hissing sounds and looking directly at us.
No one gave the order. It seemed like the entire squad opened fire at once. Every piece of vegetation between us and them was quickly sheared away. I yelled out a ceasefire order. At the same time, I was looking in the direction of the cave. There was nothing there. We immediately checked our flank in case these things circled around us, but there was nothing. As we approached the cave, ready to resume action if needed, it became apparent that the beings had escaped, most likely back into the cave.
It was soon decided to set charges and close the cave entrance. When we returned to camp, we all seemed to be in a daze. There was little discussion of the incident and we were never debriefed. So I know the sergeant never filed a report. Then again, if he did, it was kept quiet by the brass.
When researching these stories, it is uncommon to find all three of them told in conjunction with one another. So saying, with the assertion being that these stories originated from three separate men who served in Vietnam, the similarities between their stories are seemingly remarkable. But these American servicemen are purportedly not alone in their experiences.
Ho Khan is a Vietnamese logger born in the rural hills of Phong Nha. He lost his father during the war. To provide for his family, Ho then spent much of his life foraging for valuable wood in the surrounding jungles, wood that is used for incense, herbal remedies, and other medicines. In December of 1990, while out foraging for agarwood in the jungle, a sudden cloudburst forced him to seek shelter.
He then stumbled upon an opening in a limestone cliff wall. It was a cave, a massive cave. He could hear the sounds of a river raging somewhere inside the cave and even saw clouds billowing out of the entrance. When he later showed his discovery to British cave explorers, this cave would come to be known as Hang Son Dung or the Mountain River Cave.
In 2009, it was declared to be the world's largest cave, extending deep into the mountains, a length of more than 9 kilometers or more than 5.5 miles. The average height of the cave is 200 meters, 660 feet. Its average width, about 75% of that. It's so outrageously massive, it's been found to have its own ecosystem, which
with breakages in parts of the cave ceiling allowing for sunlight to shine through, leading to the growth of entire jungles inside the cave. Within these hard-to-reach jungles have been found species of endangered tigers, flying foxes, and rare primates. It's practically a lost world, thriving just beneath the surface of the earth. The cave was opened for tourism in 2013,
In 2015, a video was posted online that asserted that, presumably while exploring the cave after his early discovery, Ho-Khan had encountered what he described as a devil creature. This creature, this video stated, had a human body, but with the skin and facial structure closer to that of a dragon or lizard.
In addition to this description, Ho is claimed to have inadvertently taken a Polaroid photo of the creature while attempting to photograph one of the dark cave tunnels. In this photo, something like a humanoid creature does appear to be watching him curiously around the far bend in the passage, its body largely concealed in the dark.
It's hard to make heads or tails of it, but what is seen is suggested to be distinctive facial features, the eyes and mouth of the creature being the only things captured by the camera's flash. However, this video was the first uploaded by the creator when he started his channel, and it does seem to be the original and only online source of this photo and its connection to Hokan and the Sondong Cave.
As far as credibility, unfortunately it does not seem that the video's creator offered any indication of where he found the photo or any evidence that Ho-Khan took the photo himself or that he ever claimed to have encountered reptilian humanoids. There are also claims circulating online forums that tourists to the cave have reported strange sightings of these creatures, with one tourist said to have gone missing, presumed to have been abducted by them.
But again, these claims can only be traced back to the same video where the photo originated from. The creator posted two more paranormal videos following this one, and his account has since remained inactive for the last seven years. So as far as proving the validity of this photo being taken by Ho Khan in a cave in Vietnam, or even being an original unaltered photo, we are left empty-handed.
As of 2022, even the TV show Ancient Aliens picked up on the strange similarities between all of these encounters and did an episode on the Seondong Cave and the humanoid creatures. In their coverage of the events, they are also unfortunately somewhat vague in their claims that local residents described seeing reptilian-type humanoid beings emerging from the cave.
One can only assume they are likewise parroting the same information offered by this single YouTube video from 2015. Considering how difficult it was for Ho to find the cave, it begs the question at what point in time and how many locals took the time to visit the cave and happened upon these strange creatures before the chartered tourist groups began arriving in 2013.
And without any indication that anyone from the ancient aliens team has actually interviewed the Vietnamese locals, or even Ho Khan himself, about his supposed encounter with these creatures, any reports about these creatures in relation to the Son Don cave and Ho Khan remain questionable.
As for the soldiers' stories, only two of them appear to have known sources. Paranormal show host Art Bell covered the Riverside encounter during a live broadcast of his coast-to-coast radio program. The third encounter, involving the creatures emerging from a cave, was submitted to paranormal researcher Lon Strickler in 2015, which he then published to his online blog. The story was provided to him by a US soldier who served in Vietnam and continued his military service after the war.
Lan assured his readers that the man had provided references for his identification, which both checked out. Lan confirmed that not only had this man served in the army, but that he had led a distinguished and admirable career before retiring. At minimum, wherever they are presented, all three of these stories are given the authority of at least having originated from an actual service member who fought in Vietnam, as opposed to the stories being works of pure fiction.
As to their reasons for remaining anonymous, it goes without saying. Even a small amount of military experience and the understandable expectation they would have had of being labeled as "unhinged" would offer us plenty of insight into their motivations.
It should also be said that many of these men returned home from a war, physically and psychologically injured, only to find themselves the target of political animus. Instead of a welcome home, they found themselves hated and despised by many of their own countrymen, serving a prison sentence for dodging the draft or being called a baby killer for choosing to serve their country with honor. Those were the choices our society offered them.
Not exactly a warm environment which would have encouraged our boys to tell these more bizarre stories with any confidence. What can be said of the reported military encounters with these creatures in the 1970s is that the location and timing of each encounter is somewhat consistent. All three of the encounters are presented as occurring in close proximity to the dividing border between North and South Vietnam in the province of Quang Binh.
Even the Son Dong cave is located in the same province, 70 kilometers or 43 miles north of the DMZ. So that entire mountainous area could be hiding any number of undiscovered cave systems.
All of the encounters were reported as taking place at night, possibly in the early morning before sunrise, or otherwise near caves, indicating that these creatures would likely be nocturnal and that their eyesight is well adapted to darkness, an ideal adaptation for cave dwelling. With the exception of skin color, bioluminescence, and the wearing of clothing, the physical descriptions given for these strange creatures and their behavior likewise appear similar across all three accounts.
But if they exist, where might they be hiding now? Like the deepest parts of our oceans, the sprawling, massive jungles of Southeast Asia where these events are said to have happened, these jungles remain largely unexplored. And it's no wonder why. The soldiers who fought there will tell you themselves. The terrain is difficult to traverse. Steep, cragged mountains with sheer drops leading down to muddy jungle basins. Not to mention dealing with the biting insects, poisonous snakes, and other unpleasant animals.
In any case, it would hardly be feasible to explore these regions by any means other than on foot or by aircraft. And the US military's prolific use of toxic herbicides during the war points to the obvious problem with aircraft. The thick canopy of trees makes it impossible to see what might be moving along the jungle floor anyway, whether enemy soldiers or something else.
Humans have lived in that region for tens of thousands of years, the Seondong Cave system has existed for millions of years, and yet its discovery was only recently documented. If not someone like Ho-Khan earning an honest living by scouring the jungles for valuable wood, there's nothing else of value anyone wants to go looking for, at least nothing that's worth the trouble. And even Ho likely doesn't explore beyond a certain distance from his home.
So, if we were hoping for new evidence, we may never get it. If the Vietnamese locals remain content to explore only a short distance from their villages, the depths of these jungles will continue to remain a mystery.
Still, without venturing into the realms of alien conspiracy or interdimensional travel, the idea of intelligent humanoid reptiles having evolved alongside mankind would understandably seem ludicrous. So perhaps the only logical theory we might have is that because of the war, military action in these heavily forested regions is what finally exposed mankind to these strange and elusive creatures. Or perhaps these soldiers were not the first humans to encounter them,
but only the first in a very long time. And then there were the earthquakes. American soldiers watched their morning coffee being stirred by the massive impacts of distant bombs, while the Viet Cong hungered down on their tunnels were praying they wouldn't be crushed to death, while the earth was shaking violently around them.
Certainly, any undiscovered animal might have been stirred momentarily out of its cave by these widespread bombing campaigns. And once the war ended and the bombing stopped, the men returned home and the creatures returned to their quiet solitude.
As far as their strange appearance goes, by comparison, it does seem that the deeper we have ventured away from the ocean's surface, the stranger the fish get and the longer they can live. Some species of fish even produce their own ambient light, having adapted in an environment of complete darkness. In surviving in the depths of the ocean, we have documented species of even complex animals, whales and sharks, that can live for more than 400 years.
Perhaps the same is true in dark jungles and massive unexplored cave systems. The deeper you go, the weirder it gets, and perhaps it just takes a war to draw them out of hiding.
Wartime Stories is created and hosted by me, Luke LaManna. Executive produced by Mr. Ballin, Nick Witters, and Zach Levitt. Written by Jake Howard and myself. Audio editing and sound design by me, Cole Lacascio, and Whit Lacascio. Additional editing by Davin Intag and Jordan Stidham. Research by me, Jake Howard, Evan Beamer, and Camille Callahan.
Mixed and mastered by Brendan Cain. Production supervision by Jeremy Bone. Production coordination by Avery Siegel. Additional production support by Brooklyn Gooden. Artwork by Jessica Clarkson-Kiner, Robin Vane, and Picotta. If you'd like to get in touch or share your own story, you can email me at info at wartimestories.com. Thank you so much for listening to Wartime Stories.
