War, it brings out the worst in Humans. It also brings out stories of apparitions left over from the lives lost and the turmoil brought upon countless thousands. the Vietnam war was no different. A land shrouded in jungles and mystery. A people dedicated to defending it against the US Invasion. It was a terrible time and a stain on the history of man kind.
In any case where one finds the amount of death and destruction of war there will be ghost stories. From the oldest accounts of Romans and Vikings, to modern day middle East conflicts. Every war changes the world in some way, but the Vietnam war did more than that. Advances in technology and what seemed like heartlessness created a horrible situation. The use of napalm, gases, and other barbaric methods scarred the landscape, and some of those scars remain.
This story, of a former tunnel rat is quite spooky. A tunnel rat was a soldier who would crawl into the tunnels created by the Viet cong and eliminate soldiers or scout ahead. It was one of the wars most deadly tasks. Crawling around in the dark, avoiding traps, and hoping to find the enemy before they found you. On one of his missions on an extremely deep tunnel. The soldier entered into an open chamber and found a tarp hiding a stair case going further into the darkness.
The stairs were old, the veteran remarked. Much older than the tunnels dug out by the VC soldiers. Cautiously, the Rats moved the tarp with their pistols and fixed their flashlights on 10 or so Vietnamese people, dressed as VC, but with blank faces looking into space, bodies rocking back and forth, eyes a solid black color. The men waved their flashlights and weapons in their faces but nothing stopped their rocking motion.
At the head of the room sat a small shrine. A statue at it's center. The form was of a golden woman, but her lower half consisted of tentacles instead of a human body. Instead of continuing, the soldier rigged the entrance and the chamber with explosives and escaped quickly before imploding the tunnel upon itself.
A short interlude story comes from a Vietnamese farmer. In 1993, the farmer was heading to work in the rice paddy fields. Along his path he spotted his wife and children sitting nearby. His wifes expression soured and the children hid behind her.
This was a shock to the farmer, as his family was lost in a napalm fire in the late 60's
The next story is one you hear from time to time from US soldiers within other countries. Stories of creatures unknown to science. Whether it be shadowy apparitions or physical creatures. Especially in Jungle areas, these threats can lurk anywhere. Marines in Vietnam would often try to recruit locals to help guide them in their area of operations. In some areas, however, the locals were fearful of going into the densest, darkest parts of the jungle. The reason, they found, was the local superstition that phantoms, called ma, occupied the trees there.
At first the Us soldier shrugged off the ghost stories, but starting in 1965, it became very real. American troops in the jungles of Vietnam began reporting ghostly figures moving supernaturally through the trees. Others reported fanged creatures with black eyes that would try to kidnap and consume unsuspecting troops. In one encounter, the beasts were found to be bulletproof.
It was said that the dense canopy and jungle prevented them from being hit by ammunition. some say that is the true reason fire bombing and Napalm was introduced into the war. The canopy and jungle had to be thinned out in order to eliminate these ghouls, or phantoms.
The building at 727 Tran Hung Dao in Ho Chi Minh City is the focus of our last few tales. The large hotel housed American service members during the war. however, the building suffered even through construction. To the point a Shaman had to be called in to bless the hotel.
Sadly this did not help. His method of burying four virgins on the property did not solve any of the issues. To this day, residents hear screams of horror in the middle of the night, the sound of a military parade on the march through the building, and the apparition of a spectral American GI walking, holding hands with his Vietnamese girlfriend. There are also reports online from many people over the years who have stayed in the building and seen or heard other spirits.
The war, any war, is bad enough. This war however stuck with a lot of people and changed lives for generations. The spirits of those lost, as well as the ancient deities of the land itself still remain. There could be hundreds or thousands of more stories from the depths of those jungles. Some may never see the light of day.