A man from the Dominican Republic wears a devil mask while dancing in the street during Carnival celebrations in Panama City, Monday, February 16, 2015. (Photo by Arnulfo Franco/AP Photo)

A general view of Stonehenge during the annual Perseid meteor shower in the night sky in Salisbury Plain, southern England August 13, 2013. The Perseid meteor shower is sparked every August when the Earth passes through a stream of space debris left by comet Swift-Tuttle. Picture taken using a long exposure. (Photo by Kieran Doherty/Reuters)

A member of staff prepares herself a crisp sandwich in the Simply Crispy sandwich cafe in Belfast, northern Ireland January 12, 2015. The sandwich shop which opened on Monday is the world's first crisp sandwich cafe, local media reported. The idea of a crisp sandwich cafe started as a joke article on a website called Ulster Fry. The hilarious piece poked fun at recent ridiculous foody trends like the cereal café that opened in London last year. What was once a satirical joke has now become reality, after Belfast cafe owner Andrew McMenamin decided to make it happen. Customers will be able to choose their bread and crisps and add cheese or ham to their sandwich, which will be served with soup and chips. (Photo by Cathal McNaughton/Reuters)

A reveller takes part in the battle of “Enfarinats”, a flour fight in celebration of the Els Enfarinats festival on December 28, 2015 in Ibi, Spain. Citizens of Ibi annually celebrate the festival with a battle using flour, eggs and firecrackers. (Photo by Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images)

A masked tourist poses for a souvenir photo next to a graffiti titled “Mobile World Virus” depicting “La Gioconda”, aka Mona Lisa, with a mobile phone and a medical mask, by urban artist TVBoy, close to the Sant Jaume square in Barcelona, Spain, 09 March 2020. Barcelona's Deputy Mayor and two town councillors are in quarantine after they were in contact with a City Hall's worker who was tested positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus. (Photo by Quique Garcia/EPA/EFE)

Leopard seal chasing a Gentoo penguin in Antarctica. This image wins the gold prize in the behaviour – mammals category, and the grand prize of World Nature Photographer of the Year. (Photo by Amos Nachoum/World Nature Photography Awards)

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)