The BADGER shot was a 23 kiloton nuclear bomb. Over 2,000 US soldiers were within 3.7 kilometers of the explosion. (Photo by Alamy Stock Photo)

A model backstage ahead of the Rasit Bagzibagli show during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Istanbul at on March 27, 2018 in Istanbul, Turkey. (Photo by Sinem Yazici/Getty Images for IMG)

Sue Bunclark, 40, from Rotherham poses for a photograph besides her 1964 first generation or T1, split-screen Volkswagen Transporter Samba van in Newquay on August 6, 2014 in Cornwall, England. The van, which she and her family have owned for five years is nicknamed Sammy. The Volkswagen Transporter was first produced in 1950 and has sold over ten million units worldwide evolving through five generations of functional and practical body styles, each representing the ultimate multi-purpose vehicle of its time. To commemorate the model's 60th anniversary in the UK Volkswagen has launched a special edition of the Transporter dubbed the Sportline 60. (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

The galactic core of the Milky Way glows brightly in the clear night sky above St Catherine?s Chapel at Abbotsbury in Dorset, UK on August 2, 2024. (Photo by Graham Hunt/Alamy Live News)

General Maurice Gamelin, General Officer commanding the French Armies, is on a four day visit to England. He went to the staff college at Minley and is seen inspecting an anti-tank gun at Aldershot, on June 7, 1939. (Photo by AP Photo)

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 Philippine Airlines A300 Airbus plane lies near the service road of a highway south of Manila after it overshot the runway, September 19, 1987 in Manila upon landing from Singapore. Nobody was injured among 135 passengers and crewmen on board. (Photo by Bullit Marquez/AP Photo)

Members of the Indian Army Service Corps (ASC) team known as the “Tornadoes” display their motorbike skills during Independence Day celebrations in Bangalore, India, 15 August 2023. India is marking the 77th anniversary of its independence from British rule. (Photo by Jagadeesh N.V./EPA)