The Beasts of Vietnam

Summary

Hosts Cam Hale and Kyle Filson revisit the legendary 'rock apes' of Vietnam, sharing soldiers' accounts of upright, hair-covered creatures that stalked patrols, ran through firefights, and allegedly left an enemy soldier torn apart. The episode also covers listener stories of ant-like beings contacted through meditation in Joshua Tree, thunderbirds and a juvenile Sasquatch vanishing into invisible portals, a black-eyed child that turned into a mantis-like creature, and sinister fairy-like visitors. It closes with a Florida family who claim they shot and secretly buried a nine-foot Bigfoot in 2004, and a Sequoia park ranger who says he was fired after reporting an attack by a massive ape-like creature.

Key takeaways

• 1'Powell's Ape': On April 27, 1970, the Army Reporter described a guard at the Cam Ranh Bay ammunition depot firing on an unknown creature, which left a blood trail and a footprint that was neither human nor recognizably ape.
• 2Gary Linderer's six-man 101st Airborne long-range reconnaissance patrol reportedly saw a reddish-brown, upright, five-foot hair-covered creature in the Central Highlands. One soldier insisted it was not a rock ape.
• 3A 1969 witness said a seven-foot creature ran through a firefight, was hit by gunfire, and caused enemy troops to flee. The next day his squad reportedly found an enemy soldier torn apart, and locals called the creature something like 'stench monkey.'
• 4Special forces veteran Steve Williams claimed that in 1967-68 his team found the upper half of a decomposing Bigfoot-like creature, which he estimated stood about eight feet tall.
• 5Marine Nick Susick cited Mark Hall's hominid book and a Vietnamese colleague's account of captured 'wild people.' Michael Kelly of the 101st Airborne described a squad opening fire on about eight rock apes near Hue.
• 6A listener from Wewahitchka, Florida claimed that in October 2004 his father and friends killed a nine-foot male Bigfoot and buried it, then told everyone it was a bear. Separately, former Sequoia ranger 'Arthur' said he was fired in 1997 after reporting a creature attack on his Jeep.

Glossary terms

Source

Transcript excerpt

There's more to these sounds than meet the ear. It isn't always easy recognizing that everyday feelings like stress, anxiety, or trouble sleeping could be signs of something more. At Cigna Healthcare, we help you recognize the mental health warning signs and support you with expert care, personalized guidance, and proactive outreach. So caring for your mental health can be part of your everyday. That's better by design. Learn more at Cigna.com slash better. What's going on, everybody? And thank you all again so very much for joining us here today on Expanded Perspectives with me, Cam Hale, and as always, except this time catching him right before he walks out the door, Kyle Filson. How's it going, everybody? Yes, I'm here in studio watching some bare knuckle fighting. That's right. It's pretty exciting. Who did we just watch? Jimmy Sweeney? Is that his name? Jimmy Sweeney. Yeah, man. It's a rough sport. I was talking to Cam before. I was like, how much do they get paid? And he's like, eh, I don't think a whole lot. Probably not. Not enough. You mentioned that's your job. No, but I love watching it. Oh, yeah. I like watching people do all kinds of dumb stuff. I love watching fights. That's the sport that I watch the most of any of it is always fights. Yeah, really? Yeah, that's it. I don't really watch any sports. Like I said, football comes around. I might watch, you know, I watch the Aggies play college football. Yeah, we talked about this. But I don't really, and I won't even, like, I miss games and all that. But the only sports that I really watch is bare knuckle fighting, Muay Thai, and MMA. I love Muay Thai. Yeah. It's so great. ...

Excerpt from Expanded Perspectives, Jul 21, 2026. Rights remain with the original creators. Hear the full episode at the source.