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)

In this Thursday, June 14, 2018, file photo, students wear virtual reality goggles during a science class at Pyongyang Teachers' University, a teacher training college, in Pyongyang, North Korea. (Photo by Dita Alangkara/AP Photo)

Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman are seen during the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina November 30, 2018. G20 powers open two days of summit talks on Friday after a stormy buildup dominated by tensions with Russia and US President Donald Trump's combative stance on trade and climate fears. (Photo by Marcos Brindicci/Reuters)

Dancers perform during a general rehearsal of “Kreatur” (Creature) by German choreographer Sasha Waltz in collaboration with artist and fashion designer Iris van Herpen and light designer Urs Schoenebaum in Berlin, Germany on June 8, 2017. (Photo by Stefanie Loos/Reuters)

Chileans watch the sky with special suits prior to a total solar eclipse on July 2, 2019 in Paiguano, Chile. Around 25,0000 tourists arrived to Paiguano, a small town of around 1,000 inhabitants in the Elqui Valley, 650 km away Santiago. This is the only Earth's total solar eclipse of 2019 and the first one since 2017. From this point, the sun will fully disappear for around two minutes. It is best visible from a stripe in the South Pacific, Chile and Argentina. (Photo by Marcelo Hernandez/Getty Images)

A girl cools off from the heat in water from an open fire hydrant in the Washington Heights section of upper Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S., July 19, 2019. (Photo by Mike Segar/Reuters)

A three-metre-tall painted bronze sculpture, Seated Man 2016, by the artist Sean Henry, is lifted into its new home on July 23, 2019 at Yorkshire Sculpture Park in Wakefield, England. (Photo by Christopher Thomond/The Guardian)

People watch plumes of smoke and ash rise from as Taal Volcano erupts Sunday January 12, 2020, in Tagaytay, Cavite province, outside Manila, Philippines. (Photo by Aaron Favila/AP Photo)