Achilles Heel is the powerful memoir of a son of New England privilege who served as a Marine Corps “grunt” lieutenant in the early years of the Vietnam conflict. Almost 60 years on, Mon Cochran looks back at a war that left its mark on him and a generation. The vivid account of his 13-month deployment with a helicopter squadron—illustrated by his own photographs—ranges from terror-filled missions to pluck troops from “hot” landing zones to the black comedy of self-serving colonels and alcohol-fueled stunts. Framing that core story is a portrait of the author’s youth and his later life as an educator, writer, and father of two.