Željava Air Base, situated on the border between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina under Plješevica Mountain, near the city of Bihać, Bosnia, was the largest underground airport and military air base in the former Yugoslavia, and one of the largest in Europe. (Photo by Thomas Windisch/Exclusivepix Media)

A student from “the cliff village” in Atule'er climbs newly-constructed steel ladders after school to go home for holidays, in Liangshan Sichuan province, China, November 19, 2016. The steel ladders which replaced the unsafe vine ladders shortened the time taken for the children to go home, from three hours to two. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

A member of the Edo Firemanship Preservation Association displays his balancing skills atop bamboo ladders during a New Year demonstration by the fire brigade in Tokyo, Japan, January 6, 2017. (Photo by Toru Hanai/Reuters)

Members of the grounds crew try to catch a cat that got loose on the field during the eighth inning between the Baltimore Orioles and the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium on August 2, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Adam Hunger/Getty Images)

Kenny Wallace, driver of the #09 Family Farmers Toyota, spins into Justin Allgaier, driver of the #31 Brandt Chevrolet, who is lifted into the air by Reed Sorenson, driver of the #52 Means Racing Chevrolet, as Michael Annett, driver of the #43 Pilot Flying J. Ford, tries to avoid the wreckage during the NASCAR Nationwide Series DRIVE4COPD 300 at Daytona International Speedway on February 25, 2012 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by John Harrelson/Getty Images for NASCAR)

In the spring of 1965, within weeks of 3,500 American Marines arriving in Vietnam, a 39-year-old Briton named Larry Burrows began work on a feature for LIFE magazine, chronicling the day-to-day experience of U.S. troops on the ground – and in the air – in the midst of the rapidly widening war. The photographs in this gallery focus on a calamitous March 31, 1965, helicopter mission; Burrows’ “report from Da Nang”, featuring his pictures and his personal account of the harrowing operation, was published two weeks later as a now-famous cover story in the April 16, 1965, issue of LIFE.

Photo: Man your battle stations: The crew chief of helicopter Yankee Papa 13, lance corporal James C. Farley, mans an M-60 machine gun during a mission near Da Nang, Vietnam on March 31, 1965. (Photo by Larry Burrows/Time & Life Pictures)

Taiwanese and Chinese nationals suspected of telecom fraud are surrounded by China police SWAT team and Cambodia police as they were deported to China at the International Airport of Phnom Penh, June 24, 2016. Scores of Chinese police officers swarmed the tarmac at Phnom Penh International Airport on Friday as 39 suspects arrested for their involvement in an alleged telecom scam were herded onto a chartered plane bound for China – including 25 Taiwanese nationals, whose government unsuccessfully attempted to have them repatriated. (Photo by Samrang Pring/Reuters)

A soldier shares a tender moment with his girlfriend while other soldiers rest during a rehearsal of a military parade a few days before the Independence Day in Kiev, Ukraine, Monday, August 22, 2016. Ukraine to mark the 25th anniversary of the Independence Day on August 24. (Photo by Efrem Lukatsky/AP Photo)