People brave the first rain and wind of Storm Agnes as it approaches the UK on September 27, 2023 in Liverpool, United Kingdom. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

This photo taken on October 23, 2022 shows a soap bubble reflecting the Namsan Seoul Tower at Namsan Park in Seoul, South Korea. (Photo by Xinhua News Agency/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

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)

A girl dressed up as a emissary of the Three Wise Men poses for a photo as she waits for their arrival in a helicopter to take part in the traditional Epiphany parade in Ronda, Spain, January 5, 2018. (Photo by Jon Nazca/Reuters)

“Weapons Instructor”, 2012. It’s a well known fact that the IDF trains some of the best soldiers in the world, but at the source of every good soldier lies an exceptional instructor – and that’s where Cpl. Daniella Stepanoe steps in. She travels from base to base training everyone from paratroopers to elite special forces units in the use of their weapons. (Photo by Israel Defense Forces)

An Iraqi soldier stands guard as a pipeline burns in the background after an explosion 30 kilometers (20 miles) northeast of Tikrit, Iraq, Monday, February 11, 2008. (Photo by Bassem Daham/AP Photo)

Revelers participate in J'Ouvert, an overnight celebration the night before the West Indies Day Parade in Brooklyn, NY on September 3, 2018. Violence in past years led NYPD to shut down the parade route until 2am. (Photo by Stephen Yang)

Jeret Cooper of Vernon, British Columbia rides the horse Einstein Quest in the novice bareback event during the Calgary Stampede rodeo in Calgary, Alberta, Canada on July 11, 2022. (Photo by Todd Korol/Reuters)