As Veterans Day approaches, I was glad to learn of an author in our region who has written about the Vietnam War: Laura Kalpakian. One of our local authors, Marian Exall, introduced me to Kalpakian’s work, saying she has known Kalpakian “as a teacher, editor, mentor, and dear friend.”
Kalpakian is an award-winning author of 16 novels and more than 100 stories published in collections, anthologies, literary journals and magazines in the USA and the UK, according to her website. Recently, however, Kalpakian set aside fiction in order to focus on a memoir: “Undesirable: The Vietnam War and a Father’s Battle for Justice.”
The book is based on Kalpakian’s older brother, Doug, who enlisted in the Army in early 1969 at age 18 and was sent to Vietnam, ultimately getting assigned the role of point man — walking at the head of a patrol — which was a hazardous front-line combat job.
Author Laura Kalpakian will talk about her new book, “Undesirable: the Vietnam War and a Father’s Battle for Justice,” at the Winthrop library on Oct. 20.
As was the case for so many others, Vietnam was not a good place for Kalpakian’s brother, who became addicted to drugs, went AWOL, and was court martialed. Ultimately he accepted an “undesirable discharge” that denied him veterans’ benefits and any recognition of his wartime service.
An undesirable discharge is an administrative action, unlike a dishonorable discharge, which is punitive. But it results in a loss of benefits as well as a social stigma, which had profound ramifications for both Doug and his parents.
When Kalpakian’s brother returned to the United States, to McChord Air Force Base near Tacoma, he was suffering physically, emotionally, and psychologically. He struggled with PTSD, mental illness, and addiction. His father spent three years trying to have Doug’s “undesirable” discharge reversed to an unambiguous “honorable,” based on evidence he collected about his son’s experiences in Vietnam and Cambodia.
In 1973, Kalpakian’s parents locked the reams of paperwork from their three years of petitioning into a safe in their basement. It was moved to Kalpakian’s own basement in 1987, where it remained undisturbed until 2024, when Kalpakian opened it and learned the truth about her father’s fight to exonerate his prodigal son. She then used the trove of documents to piece together “Undesireable.”
Appropriately, the launch of “Undesireable” will take place on Veteran’s Day at Village Books in Bellingham. But Craig Seasholes of Friends of the Winthrop Library (FOWL) jumped on Marian’s suggestion that Winthrop introduce it pre-launch. Thus, FOWL and Trail’s End Bookstore will host Kalpakian on Tuesday, Oct. 20, at 5:30 p.m. in the Community Room at the Winthrop library. The event is free and open to the community.
Marian says, “I think the story is of compelling interest to veterans, and to anyone of our generation for whom the Vietnam War was a formative event of our youth. ‘Undesirable’ demands that we ask what we — and our government — owe to our veterans for the physical, psychological, and emotional sacrifices they and their families make. It is as relevant today as 50 years ago.”
