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)

Teenage girls at a drinking fountain in Hyde Park in Central London on August 9, 2022 after weeks with no significant rain and unprecedented high temperatures. Many parts of southern England and Wales are facing drought conditions and preparing for emergency water measures. (Photo by Sarah Lee/The Guardian)

Women wearing kimono and protective masks make their way to Coming of Age Day celebration ceremony, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Tokyo, Japan, January 10, 2022. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

Aerialists Luka Owen and Daniel Connor perform with a Fork Lift Truck to mark the handover of the former Daimler Car Factory to Imagineer by the Wigley Group on April 14, 2021 in Coventry, England. The building will include a sound recording studio and edit suite, as well as a Sprung Dance Floor and Vertical Dance Wall. As well as providing a home for Imagineer’s innovative education and training programmes aimed at young people and people with disabilities. (Photo by Darren Staples/Getty Images)

Looters scramble in Philipsburg, St. Maarten, Sunday September 10, 1995 for goods in the Ram's department store, which contained mostly food and liquor. No attempts are currently being made by Dutch troops on the island to stop the looting, since few relief supplies have arrived in St. Maarten, which was ravaged on Tuesday by Hurricane Luis. (Photo by John McConnico/AP Photo)

Janus, a two-headed Greek turtle named after the Roman god with two heads is testing a kind of skateboard to rehabilitate one day ahead of her 25th birthday at the Natural History Museum in Geneva on September 2, 2022. (Photo by Pierre Albouy/Reuters)

Drag queen Courtney Act (real name Shane Jenek) attends the Celebrity Big Brother male contestants launch night at Elstree Studios on January 5, 2018 in Borehamwood, England. The drag queen was left over-exposed on last show after her outfit apparently fell off. (Photo by Mike Marsland/WireImage)

A woman wears a flower crown during a Summer Solstice celebration on June 21, 2021 in Krakow, Poland. The summer solstice represents the longest day of the year, with the most hours of sunlight, and is celebrated by various cultures worldwide. (Photo by Omar Marques/Getty Images)