HOUSTON -- Old soldiers always have war stories. But Carlos Buchanan's story happened off the battlefield, and 40 years later, it got a happy ending at Bush Intercontinental Airport.
Buchanan fathered a son in Vietnam, but never saw until he was reunited with him on Wednesday.
“Come here son,” Buchanan called out, as he saw his son arrive from Virginia.
“I know that I do have a father and there he is,” said Robert Brown, Buchanan’s son. “At least I know where I got my looks from. You are a good looking man there, Dad.”
The story begins back in 1970. Buchanan met Brown’s mom, Kim Bohannan, on a base in Saigon. They fell in love and she got pregnant, but Buchanan said he could not get his tour of duty extended, so he left Vietnam before the baby was born. Buchanan said during the chaos of the war, he and his son's mother lost touch.
“After Saigon fell, it was difficult, nearly impossible,” said Buchanan.
Bohanan wound up marrying another GI and came to the United States in the early 70s. She left her son with her parents in Vietnam and was able to get him to the United States when he was 15.
Brown said his time in Vietnam was hard. Amerasian children were shunned.
“At that time my grandfather had to put me in hiding…I was mixed,” said Brown. “There was a lot of hatred for that.”
Brown says he dreamed of finding his dad.
“I had no name. I had no anything to go with and I got to the point [of thinking] let go and let God,” he said.
Brown’s mom didn’t encourage her son to find his father because she knew he was married, had another family and was worried Buchanan might reject their son. But then, she fell ill last year and changed her mind.
“If I died, my son never would find out who his father is,” said Bohannan.
So she went to the website Fathersfounded.org. The creator of the site, Brian Hjort, lives in Sweden. Hjort volunteers his time helping to reunite Amerasian children with their GI dads. He said he was troubled by the way Amerasian children were treated in Vietnam when he visited back in 1992. He wanted to help. So, he works to reunite families. He said there’s no charge, but he does accept donations for covering the costs of the work that he does.
Hjort was able to track down the important information Bohannan and Brown needed to find Brown’s father. That led to their reunion Wednesday.
“I wish I could turn the clock back and bring him up from the time he was small,” said Buchanan. “I promised him, and my family that I would make up for all that lost time.”
As they flipped through pictures of Buchanan as a young soldier, his son was amazed at how much of his features he saw in father’s face.
“This is me,” he said smiling and shaking his head.
