A handout picture provided by Global newsroom of Czech Martin Sonka (C) leading Nigel Lamb (top) of Great Britain and Yoshihide Muroya of Japan (down) along the Mount Fuji prior the third stage of the Red Bull Air Race World Championship in Chiba, Japan on June 1, 2016. (Photo by Predrag Vockovic/EPA/Global Newsroom)

A Humboldt penguin stands on weighing scales whilst being photographed by members of the press during a photocall at the annual weigh-in at London Zoo in London, Britain, 24 August 2016. Every animal that is in the zoo is weighed and measured and the statistics recorded so the data can be shared with zoos across the world. (Photo by Hannah McKay/EPA)

A close up of ornaments of centuries-old idols of Lord Buddha during the Pancha Daan, Five donation, festival in Bhaktapur, Nepal, 30 August 2016. Thousands of Buddhist pilgrims observe the main day of the Pancha Daan also known as a five summer gifts (rice, grain, salt, money and fruits) festival which is observes for world peace and human welfare. (Photo by Narendra Shrestha/EPA)

A groom leads his horse in the equine pool after working out on the track, during early morning workouts for the upcoming Derby race in Mumbai January 29, 2015. (Photo by Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)

A woman eats candy in the shape of a phallus during the Kanamara Matsuri, or Iron Phallus Festival through a street near the Kanamara shrine in Kawasaki outside of Tokyo April 5, 2015. The festival celebrates fertility and is used to raise awareness and money for the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)

Passengers prepare to take part in the No Pants Subway Ride in Prague, Czech Republic, Sunday, January 8, 2017. The No Pants Subway Ride began in 2002 in New York as a stunt and has taken place in cities around the world since then. (Photo by Petr David Josek/AP Photo)

Activists attend a parade to demand rights of gender equality to LGBT community members in Santiago, Chile, November 25, 2017. (Photo by Ivan Alvarado/Reuters)

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)