Vietnamese female traffic police officers march during a rehearsal for a military parade as part of the 40th anniversary of the fall of Saigon in southern Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon City), Vietnam, on April 26, 2015. Vietnam marks the 40th anniversary of the fall of Saigon on April 30, the event that ended a war that lasted over 30 years, killing up to four million Vietnamese, the Vietnamese government said, and more than 58,000 U.S troops, the U.S. Department of Defense has said. (Photo by Reuters/Kham)

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)

“Horst Faas (28 April 1933 – 10 May 2012) was a German photo-journalist and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner. He is best-known for his images of the Vietnam War”. – Wikipedia

Photo: A U.S. crewman runs from a crashed CH-21 Shawnee troop helicopter near the village of Ca Mau in the southern tip of South Vietnam, December 11, 1962. Two helicopters crashed without serious injuries during a government raid on the Viet Cong-infiltrated area. Both helicopters were destroyed to keep them out of enemy hands. (Photo by AP Photo/Horst Faas)

Nine-year-old Barry Miller appears none too impressed with the movements of an African Rock Python which is exploring his scalp. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images). 27th August 1961