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)

Chris Renshaw has recently been awarded the 2015 Africa Geographic “Photographer of the Year” award. Chris tells that his love “for anything wild and adventurous came from a deep rooted attachment to the African continent. This image shows that timing, a bit of anticipation, and luck allowed this incredible moment in time to be captured”. (Photo by Chris Renshaw)

In this Thursday, April 13, 2017, picture entertainers wearing rabbit costumes speak at a fair in Bucharest, Romania. Ahead of Easter, celebrated by both Orthodox and Catholic believers on April 16 processions of priests clad in golden robes carrying foliage on Palm Sunday in a recreation of Jesus' ride into Jerusalem, mixed with more commercial flavored celebrations like an Easter fair outside the giant palace built by late Communist leader Nicolae Ceausescu where entertainers strutted around wearing giant rabbit heads. (Photo by Vadim Ghirda/AP Photo)

Heavy monsoon rains cause floods in several parts of Kolkata, West Bengal, India on June 17, 2021. (Photo by Sumit Sanyal/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

An aerial view taken on March 8, 2021, shows Chinese fishing vessel Lurong Yuan Yu that ran aground on reefs of Pointe-aux-Sables in Port Louis, Mauritius, on March 7, 2021. (Photo by L'Express Maurice/AFP Photo)

A lion rests in the Nairobi National Park, Kenya on January 6, 2021. (Photo by Tiksa Negeri/Reuters)

France's Orlann Ombissa-Dzangue and Czech Republic's Marcela Pirkova compete during a women's 60m heat at the 2021 European Athletics Indoor Championships in Torun on March 7, 2021. (Photo by Sergei Gapon/AFP Photo/Profimedia)

Gina Di Meo, journalist from ANSA sits during a media preview of Summit at One Vanderbilt in New York, October 1, 2021. The Summit viewing deck is spread across the top four floors on One Vanderbilt in Manhattan, the fourth tallest building in the city. (Photo by Timothy A. Clary/AFP Photo)