Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Undesirable: The Vietnam War and a Father's Battle for Justice

Undesirable: The Vietnam War and a Father's Battle for Justice

Kalpakian, Laura

Paperback

Biographies General20th Century United States HistoryVietnam War

Publisher Price: $21.95

ISBN10: 0826369790
ISBN13: 9780826369796
Publisher: Unm Press
Published: Jul 7 2026
Pages: 264
Weight: 1.10
Height: 0.90 Width: 6.00 Depth: 8.90
Language: English
The powerful true story of a parent's unflagging battle on behalf of a beloved son struggling with PTSD, mental illness, and addiction and a family who bore the burdens of war for decades.

In January 1969, angry after a fight with his father, nineteen-year-old Doug Johnson--in what will be a fateful choice--decides to enlist in the Army. Once in Vietnam as a point man, Doug becomes addicted to speed and heroin, goes AWOL multiple times, and is court martialed and imprisoned. In order to avoid a second court martial, he agrees to accept an undesirable discharge that denies him veterans' benefits and any recognition of his wartime service. In late August 1970, drugged, malnourished, and clutching the sandal of a dead Viet Cong, Doug staggers off a plane into the arms of his father.

But Doug's return home is only the beginning of this story. The core of Undesirable recounts another war: Doug's father against the US Army. For three years, he fights to have his son's undesirable discharge changed to honorable. Half a century later Laura Kalpakian--devoted daughter and sister--exhumes the evidence her father collected. From this trove of documents she assembles a heartbreaking story of a father's love for his son and a son's experience at war. Undesirable: The Vietnam War and a Father's Battle for Justice 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.

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