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 fellow officer comes to the aid of injured patrolman C.V. Satt, who was pelted with rocks and beer bottles during a clash between police and relief demonstrators in Denver September 23, 1935. (Photo by Henry G. Eisenhand/AP Photo)

Incredible drone image capture colourful water lilies being harvested in An Giang Province, Vietnam, Southeast Asia on September 2020. Water lilies are an iconic symbol in the Mekong Delta and the flowers are immediately sent to market before landing on meal tables. Their stalks are edible and can be eaten raw with either fermented paste or braised sauce, or dunked into sour soup or hotpot. (Photo by Nguyen Sanh Quoc Huy/Triangle News)

Pupils wearing face masks wait for the opening of their primary school on the first day of the new school year, in Ouagadougou, on October 1, 2020. (Photo by Olympia de Maismont/AFP Photo)

A woman wears a mask while carrying a dog in the street on January 22, 2020 in Wuhan, Hubei province, China. A new infectious coronavirus known as “2019-nCoV” was discovered in Wuhan as the number of cases rose to over 400 in mainland China. Health officials stepped up efforts to contain the spread of the pneumonia-like disease which medicals experts confirmed can be passed from human to human. The death toll has reached 17 people as the Wuhan government issued regulations today that residents must wear masks in public places. Cases have been reported in other countries including the United States, Thailand, Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea. (Photo by Getty Images/China Stringer Network)

A performer wears a face shield at a shopping center on New Year's Eve during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Bangkok, Thailand on December 31, 2020. (Photo by Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters)

Joseph Fons holding a Pride Flag, runs in front of the U.S. Supreme Court building after the court ruled that a federal law banning workplace discrimination also covers sexual orientation, in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 15, 2020. (Photo by Tom Brenner/Reuters)

A woman walks in a street in freezing weather of –24 degrees Celsius in Omsk, Russia on January 13, 2021. Daytime temperatures have been below –20 degrees Celsius in the Omsk Region since 25 December 2020. (Photo by Yevgeny Sofiychuk/TASS)