English singer and songwriter Dua Lipa performs onstage during the Dua Lipa Future Nostalgia Tour at FTX Arena on February 09, 2022 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Jason Koerner/Getty Images)

British glamour model and actress Sabrina (born Norma Ann Sykes, 1936-2016), during a press conference at Park Lane House in London on June 24, 1955. (Photo by ANL/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Aerial view of villagers drying chili peppers at a rural cooperative on August 21, 2024 in Bozhou, Anhui Province of China. (Photo by Yang Zhongqin/VCG via Getty Images)

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)

Aymara witchdoctor Ricardo Quispe, also called “Lord of the Lake”, throws coca leaves during a ritual to predict the future, at the witches market of El Alto, on the outskirts of La Paz, December 31, 2014. Dozens of witch doctors tend to a warren of stalls in El Alto, making offerings to give thanks, to promise luck at work or in love, or to call up spirits and banish curses at the end of the year. (Photo by David Mercado/Reuters)

A devotee takes a holy bath in River Saali in Sankhu on the first day of Swasthani Brata Katha festival in Kathmandu January 5, 2015. During the month long festival, devotees recite one chapter of a Hindu tale daily from the 31-chapter sacred Swasthani Brata Katha book that is dedicated to God Madhavnarayan and Goddess Swasthani, alongside various other gods and goddess and the miraculous feats performed by them. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)

Devotees take a holy bath during the Swasthani Brata Katha festival in Kathmandu January 20, 2015. During the month-long festival, devotees recite one chapter of a Hindu tale daily from the 31-chapter sacred Swasthani Brata Katha book that is dedicated to God Madhavnarayan and Goddess Swasthani, alongside various other gods and goddesses and the miraculous feats performed by them. The devotees also go on pilgrimages to various temples, perform religious rituals, take a holy bath in the rivers and fast for a month, especially among women who believe fasting helps in their family's well-being or in getting them a good husband. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)

Swans swim over a lake, with the air temperature at about minus 35 degrees Celsius (minus 31 degrees Fahrenheit) as steam ascends above the water during sunset near the village of Urozhainy, Sovetsky district of Altai region, January 26, 2015. About 600 swans annually migrate to the lake, which is heated by warm springs, where they spend their winter being fed by yagers, which helps them to survive the severe cold. (Photo by Andrei Kasprishin/Reuters)