Models prepare backstage before a presentation as part of Fashion Weekend Plus Size Summer 2015 collection show in Sao Paulo, July 25, 2015. (Photo by Nacho Doce/Reuters)

A picturesque supercell formation in the northwest of Booker, Texas from June 2013. (Photo by Mike Olbinski/Barcroft Media)

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)

Partially demolished houses stand in the Vila Autodromo slum with the Rio 2016 Olympic Park in the background in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, February 25, 2016. (Photo by Ricardo Moraes/Reuters)

A man from the Dominican Republic wears a devil mask while dancing in the street during Carnival celebrations in Panama City, Monday, February 16, 2015. (Photo by Arnulfo Franco/AP Photo)

Tibetan monks dressed as demons attend the Beating Ghost festival at the Yonghe Temple, also known as the Lama Temple, in Beijing on March 19, 2015. The Beating Ghost festival, or Da Gui festival in Chinese, is an important ritual of Tibetan Buddhism and is believed to expel evil spirits and shake off troubles. (Photo by Wang Zhao/AFP Photo)

US model Binx Walton strutted out with a boob exposed and only a glittery love heart ­protecting her modesty in Anthony Vaccarello’s debut show for Saint ­Laurent on September 27, 2016. The Sun found out how the trend measured up on trip to the shops. Here: Isabella Besque 21 from London tries out the nipple cover look as seen Paris Fashion week on the streets of London, England on October 7, 2016. (Photo by Stewart Williams/The Sun)

David Jackson (C), who voted for Donald Trump, has a discussion with Ryan Graves (L) and Anna Kaminski (R) visiting from Oamaha, Nebraska during a rally against the election of Republican Donald Trump as President of the United States in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S., November 12, 2016. (Photo by Clay Lomneth/Reuters)