More than 40 years after he left war-torn Vietnam, a Minnesota veteran is heading back there, not only to see the changes, but also to find a lost love.

Jim Reischl and Lihn Hua in his faded photograph, Photo: Captured from video (c) CBS

From 1969 to 1970, Jim Reischl, like a generation of Americans, was sent to Vietnam.

But it is not the hell of war that still haunts him. It is an attractive young lady standing with him in the faded photographs he has been keeping over the last four decades -- Lihn Hua (probably Linh Hoa?).

“The possibility is there that she is there somewhere. I just wish I had more information to go on,” said Reischl.

Also in the photographs, Reischl can see in the background a tiny apartment somewhere in Saigon, where he was living in the third floor.

He and Lihn Hua shared an apartment not far from his airbase. But when his tour of duty was over, both the war and young woman were left behind.

“I did send a letter to her address but never got anything returned, so I do not know whether it got there or got lost,” he said.

“I don’t know.”

Yet his mystery had lingered far too long. 

He also recalled that when Jim left Saigon in 1970, Lihn Hua told him she was pregnant. He could not suppress that any longer, and Vietnam is calling him back.

He got a visa and studied the maps of what is now Ho Chi Minh City. If he could find the apartment, it might -- just might -- give Reischl a clue as to Lihn Hua’s whereabouts.

Back in Saigon

Jim packed his bags for a 20-hour flight to turn the clock back some 41 years. 

With the help of his translator and two foreign journalists, they narrowed the search, asking questions of neighborhood elders.

But Ho Chi Minh City has grown three times its former size. Streets crawl with scooters and 10 million people. It was more than a long shot.

He learned that the old address was changed years ago. Then by matching photos with buildings, a woman led Jim through an alley, and to the back stairways of his old apartment.

But sadly, without Lihn Hua’s family name, his search for her was not as lucky.

“If something would have come of it that would have been great, but I did not want my expectations to be up too high,” Reischl said.

Back home, a new album filled with photos will only strengthen his quest.

And for now, Vietnam keeps calling, for a face he cannot forget.

There are more than 10,000 immigration children living in Vietnam, and for Jim’s search, it is not over.

Source: CBS