--- title: "4 creepy ghost stories from the Vietnam War" date: "2020-04-29" modified: "2026-10-26" authors: - name: "Blake Stilwell" job_title: "Editor-In-Chief, Air Force Veteran" link: "https://www.wearethemighty.com/authors/blake.md" url: "https://www.wearethemighty.com/popular/5-creepy-ghost-stories-from-the-vietnam-war/" categories: - "History" - "Vietnam War" - "War History" tags: - "Halloween" - "Vietnam War" --- # 4 creepy ghost stories from the Vietnam War ![ghost stories vietnam war]() *A human skull keeps watch over U.S. soldiers encamped in the Vietnamese jungle during the Vietnam War. (Terry Fincher/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)* In Spring 1993, a Vietnamese farmer was on his way to work his rice paddy when he passed his wife and children in the road. The wife sat on a rock and greeted him "scornfully," as his children cowered behind their mother. The meeting shocked the farmer, because his wife and three children were killed when their village was attacked in 1968 when his house [was burned to the ground](). **Also Read: [4 Revolutionary War ghosts that refuse to die]()** Ghost stories like these are told across Vietnam, where rural communities attach great significance to spiritual encounters. In this case, retold in the local media, the man believed his wife's grave had been somehow disturbed in the village's recent developments, and he immediately set out to give them a proper reburial. But there are many, many more ghost stories throughout the country, some experienced by the American Vietnam veterans. Many of those persist to this day. We scoured the internet for some of the best. ### 1. Saigon's Haunted Apartments The building at 727 Tran Hung Dao in Ho Chi Minh City—formerly known as Saigon—was a building that housed American service members for much of the Vietnam War. But its construction was plagued by accidents from the get-go, some of which killed the workers building it. Many Vietnamese locals blamed it on the number of floors the building had: 13, which was considered unlucky. ![ghost stories vietnam]() *(Saigon News)* To assuage their fears and complete the building, the architect decided to call in a shaman to rectify the building's ghost infestation issues. It's said the shaman brought the [dead bodies of four virgins]() from the local hospital and buried them at the four corners of the building, which would protect it from evil spirits. Standard procedure, we guess. But the problems persisted. The girls were either lying about being virgins, weren't actually buried there, or the magic didn't take. Because, to this day, residents report hearing screams of horror in the middle of the night, the sound of a military parade on the march *through the building*, and even the apparition of a spectral American GI walking, holding hands with his Vietnamese girlfriend. Still it's nice to know that love can last forever. ### 2. The Tunnel Rats Encounter ![ghost stories vietnam]() *Do you need to hear the story, or is this spooky enough?* On Reddit, a terminally ill Vietnam veteran, an American "tunnel rat," recounted a story of his time in the war, one that he was originally going to take to his grave. Instead, he opted [to put it on r/nosleep](). For the uninitiated, the tunnel rats were American infantrymen, usually of short stature, who would crawl into North Vietnamese and Viet Cong tunnels to eradicate the troops that hid there below the surface. It was one of the war's most dangerous jobs, crawling around in the dark, avoiding booby traps, and trying to kill them before they killed you. This tunnel rat was crawling into the deepest tunnel he'd ever been in, along with his partner. When they finally arrived in the main room, they were astonished to find that no booby traps had been set, and an oil lamp was still lit. The only thing they found was a tarp, but when they moved it, it revealed a set of stone stairs leading deeper underground. The stairs were odd and definitely not built by the VC. They looked centuries old. The two men cautiously climbed down the stairs, guns drawn, when they came upon another tarp. 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 color. The men waved their flashlights and weapons in their faces, but nothing stopped their rocking motion. The enemy's rusted-out weapons were in a pile in the corner. At the head of the room was a golden icon of a naked woman, except the lower half of her body featured eight tentacles instead of human legs. The men were tempted to touch the icon, but instead decided to rig the entrance with C4 and bail as fast as possible. As they were leaving, a woman's voice called out to them. [Read the rest of the story on Reddit](). ### 3. A Veteran Comes Home On a Notre Dame alumni website, an alumnus remarked about [his chance encounter]() with a guy he had known since grade school. He was working a construction job in 1967 and was on his way home after work one night. As he came around the corner, he walked by an old funeral parlor. He noticed the man was his old friend Jerry, a guy he hadn't seen in two years. The construction worker was tired and not really in the mood to rehash old times, so he put his hat down and walked by his old friend unnoticed. When he got home, his mother was on the phone, talking to one of the construction worker's friends. She immediately stopped her son to tell him that his old friend Jerry had been killed in Vietnam and his body was at the funeral parlor down the street. ### 4. Ghouls of the Jungle Marines in Vietnam would often attempt to recruit locals to assist them in their area of operations. In some areas, however, the locals were fearful of going into the densest, darkest parts of that jungle. The reason they found was [the local superstition]() that phantoms, or spirits called *ma*, *ma* *hồn*, *vong*, or *bóng ma*, occupied the trees there. Montagnards warned the U.S. troops that reanimated corpses awaited them in the trees. The Marines, of course, shrugged the stories off as folklore. Initially. But starting in 1965, it became very real for some U.S. troops. Americans 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 soldiers. In one encounter, the beasts were found to be bulletproof. It didn't matter what time of day it was; the corpses lived by both day and night. ![ghost stories vietnam ma]() *Artist's depiction of the ma. (Warner Bros.)* Since the triple canopy jungle kept the sunlight from hitting them, the military's top brass decided to get rid of it. The canopy, that is. Which means the *ma* might be the real reason the military developed Agent Orange and napalm—or so the legend says. The Marines would then roll in with flamethrowers to finish the job. **Don’t Miss the Best of We Are The Mighty** **• [5 Military solutions to horror movie villains]()** **• [4 More military solutions to horror movie villains]()** **• [The real-life military experiment that inspired ‘Stranger Things’]()** ## Author Blake Stilwell is We Are The Mighty's Editor-in-Chief, covering military news, entertainment, and history, along with veteran education, employment and entrepreneurship. He is a former U.S. Air Force combat cameraman with degrees in Graphic Design, Television and Film, International Relations, Public Relations, Business Management and Middle Eastern Affairs. After leaving the military, he began working in film and television production in New York and Los Angeles, work that included ABC News, NBC Olympics, and HBO Sports. He then spent two years in Washington with White House Communications, before joining the Near East Foundation. At NEF he served as an International Development Fellow, then Communications Officer, and finally, Media Officer for the Middle East and Africa. Based in the Palestinian Territory, he coordinated strategic communications between eight country offices, international media, and government and NGO partners. He began a career focused on writing and editing in 2015 with We Are The Mighty. He left in 2019 for Military.com, but returned as Editor-in-Chief in 2025. Blake’s work has been seen on CBS News, Fox News, CBC, The Chicago Tribune, Task & Purpose, Military Times, Recoil, Skillset, American History, and was shockingly even used in a Supreme Court argument. He is an avid traveler and small business owner in Ohio, where he spends most of his energy fixing up a very old house. ### Author social links [Facebook]() [Twitter]() [Instagram]() [LinkedIn]() ## More - [8 of the most terrifying Vietnam War booby traps]() - [US troops pretended to be vampires and ghosts to scare the hell out of communists]() - [4 ways the wars in Vietnam and Afghanistan are the same]() - [11 scary ghost stories, legends, and haunted military bases]() - [American troops reportedly saw Bigfoot in Vietnam]() - [Warriors in their own words: The ‘Tunnel Rats’ of Vietnam]() - [These were the terrifying dangers of being a ‘Tunnel Rat’ in Vietnam]() - [4 Revolutionary War ghosts that refuse to die]()