Rani rides home with her father on the back of his bicycle on March 6, 2017 in Khulna division, Bangladesh. Rani, who is now 16, was under pressure to marry a boy when she was 14-years-old despite the reluctance of Rani and her father, Abdul. (Photo by Allison Joyce/Getty Images)

Masooma Alizada (L) and Frozan Rasooli (R), members of Afghanistan's Women's National Cycling Team prepare a bicycle before training on the outskirts of Kabul February 20, 2015. Afghanistan's Women's National Cycling Team has been breaking new ground for women's sports and pushing the boundaries of what is – and is not – acceptable for young women in the conservative Muslim country. (Photo by Mohammad Ismail/Reuters)

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)

Sergeant Andrew Garrett watches K-Dog, a bottlenose dolphin attached to Commander Task Unit 55.4.3, leap out of the water while training near the USS Gunston Hall March 18, 2003 in the Persian Gulf. (Photo by U.S. Navy/Getty Images)

A Lebanese man dressed with a Santa Claus outfit rides on a standup paddle in Lebanon's northern coastal city of Batroun on December 22, 2020. (Photo by Ibrahim Chalhoub/AFP Photo)

Michael Cimino, Amanda Diaz and Xochitl Gomez attend the world premiere of “The Flash”, in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, U.S., June 12, 2023. (Photo by Mike Blake/Reuters)

Mike De Paola, founding director of TW Fine Art, is seen near an art installation at “Feltz Bagels”, a bagel bakery made entirely from felt, at TW Fine Art in Montauk, New York, U.S. August 11, 2023. (Photo by Roselle Chen/Reuters)