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)

Artist Pyotr Pavlensky sits on the wall enclosing the Serbsky State Scientific Center for Social and Forensic Psychiatry after he cut off a part of his earlobe during his protest action titled “Segregation” in Moscow October 19, 2014. Pavlensky protested against the usage of forensic psychiatry for politically motivated purposes. He cut off his earlobe to demonstrate how authorities could “cut off” an unwanted individual from society by using psychiatric and medical diagnosis to forcefully send a person to a penitentiary hospital, according to Pavlensky. (Photo by Maxim Zmeyev/Reuters)

“Joan Miro i Ferra (April 20, 1893 – December 25, 1983) was a Spanish Catalan painter, sculptor, and ceramicist born in Barcelona. Earning international acclaim, his work has been interpreted as Surrealism, a sandbox for the subconscious mind, a re-creation of the childlike, and a manifestation of Catalan pride. In numerous interviews dating from the 1930s onwards, Miro expressed contempt for conventional painting methods as a way of supporting bourgeois society, and famously declared an “assassination of painting” in favour of upsetting the visual elements of established painting”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Joan Miro's, grandsons, Emilio Fernandez Miro and Joan Punyet Miro pose beside Personnage (1970) in the Yorkshire Sculpture park on March 14, 2012 in Wakefield, England. Yorkshire Sculpture Park stages the first major UK survey of sculpture by Spanish artist Joan Miro. (Photo by Bethany Clarke/Getty Images)

Comandos de Salvamento rescuers Maria Martinez (L) and Ana Chichilla attend to a wounded homeless man in San Salvador, El Salvador July 16, 2016. The man was attacked with a machete by suspected gang members. In 2015, El Salvador registered a record 103 homicides per 100,000 habitants, making it one of the most dangerous countries in the world outside a war zone. But for many young people who have few chances to distance themselves from rivalries between so-called maras in their schools and neighbourhoods, a civil-society organisation called the Comandos de Salvamento, or Rescue Corps, has been a refuge. (Photo by Jose Cabezas/Reuters)

Angela Ponce, 24, (R) gets help from a fellow contestant getting dressed to compete in the "Miss World Spain" pageant in Estepona, southern Spain, October 25, 2015. Ponce, the first openly transsexual woman to compete to represent Spain at the Miss World pageant, was eliminated in the first knockout round. But Ponce already feels like a winner, she said, because her participation has brought visibility for the transgender community. "We need to educate society for diversity", Ponce said. (Photo by Susana Vera/Reuters)

Brazilian graffiti artist Eduardo Kobra (C) puts the final touches to his piece of art in tribute to Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, next to his assistants, at the financial center on Sao Paulo's Avenida Paulista January 22, 2013. Kobra created the 56-metre (61-yard) tall graffiti artwork as a tribute to Niemeyer, one of the 20th century's most influential modernist architects. Niemeyer died in December 2012, aged 104. (Photo by Andre Penner/AP Photo)

Indian bride takes part in a mass marriage ceremony under chief minister's welfare scheme (Mukhyamantri Kanyadan Yojna) on the occasion of the Basant Panchami festival, in Bhopal, India, 30 January 2020. (Photo by Sanjeev Gupta/EPA/EFE/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A mermaids swims during MerMagic Con at the Freedom Aquatic Center in Manassas, Virginia on August 7, 2021. MerMagic Con is advertised as the largest Mermaid convention in the world. Some parts of the convention are based on modeling and looks like the Miss Mermaid USA Pageant. The Society of Fat Mermaids looks to bring together plus size people and promote the idea that anyone can become a mermaid. Becoming a mermaid is not cheap, most merfolk spend thousands of dollars on their tail and outfit. Most tails are custom made out of silicone and others are foam and fabric. (Photo by Joseph Prezioso/AFP Photo)