"BERGENFIELD, N.J. -- A local Vietnam veteran recently found himself back in Vietnam to return something he found on the battlefield almost six decades ago.

The item belonged to a North Vietnamese soldier, and the sincere search for its owner was reported in a local New Jersey paper, which eventually made news over 8,500 miles away.

Vietnam War veteran Peter Mathews says "that besides having children and being married, that it had to be one of the best days I've had, to return the book."

It took him 56 years and 87 days to return a small book he found on a hill during the Vietnam War -- an eye-catching diary left behind after a bloody battle in Dak To, its pages filled with colorful illustrations, music and poetry.

It was 1967 in South Vietnam. Mathews remembers the hill where he found it, adding it was there that one of their helicopters was shot down.

Mathews, then a sergeant with the 1st Calvary Division, landed on Hill 724 after the bloody battle. His division was ordered to count bodies and look for war documents from the enemy.

He found the diary, wrapped in plastic, in an abandoned backpack. In a split-second decision, he decided to keep it.

When asked why, Mathews says, "I recognized the beauty of it. The handwriting was amazing. And I just thought it was something to really cherish."

He stuffed it in his pocket, adding, "I was also a little bit scared that if somebody else would see it, they told me to turn it in, to be honest."

With only weeks left to serve, his sole focus was survival and getting back home, but his homecoming to New Jersey posed new challenges. Originally from the Netherlands, he was drafted with only a Green Card and was told he had to wait for his U.S. citizenship.

"I got very mad about that, to put it mildly, so I put, I had a couple of medals, I put my uniform, I put everything in a box," Mathews says.

Out of sight, out of mind. He adds, "I had hangover from Vietnam. I was drinking a lot. After that, I was actually homeless for about six weeks. Shortly after that, I met my wife, Christine."

https://www.cbsnews.com/newyor...urned-peter-mathews/