Freshmen in Zhengzhou Institute of Aeronautical Industry Management head bottles of mineral water for upright stand during military training on September 17, 2015 in Zhengzhou, Henan Province of China. More than 6,800 freshmen in the school are required to take part in the military training. (Photo by ChinaFotoPress/ChinaFotoPress via Getty Images)

A girl poses in her costume during a Halloween party at a mall in Quezon city, Metro Manila October 24, 2015. (Photo by Ezra Acayan/Reuters)

A man carrying a sailfish walks through Hamarweyne district in South Mogadishu on March 25, 2015. (Photo by Carl De Souza/AFP Photo)

A dog wears fake eyes while riding a motorcycle in Samut Sakhon, Thailand June 23, 2016. (Photo by Jorge Silva/Reuters)

A cosplayer poses for a photograph during the Comic Market 90 (Comiket) event in Tokyo Big Sight on August 12, 2016, Tokyo, Japan. Many manga and anime fans wearing cosplay lined up in the sun for the first day of Comiket. Comiket was established in 1975 and focuses on manga, anime, gaming and cosplay. Organizers expect more than 500,000 visitors to attend this year's summer event which runs for three days until August 14. (Photo by Aflo/Splash News)

Contorsionist Rich Miteku performs during the opening of the 41st Monte-Carlo International Circus Festival in Monaco on January 19, 2017. (Photo by Valery Hache/AFP Photo)

Members of the Colombian Navy stand guard on top of a seized submarine built by drug smugglers in a makeshift shipyard in Timbiqui, department of Cauca February 14, 2011. Colombian authorities said the submersible craft was to be used to transport 8 tons of cocaine illegally into Mexico. (Photo by Jaime Saldarriaga/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)