A Zimbabwean subsistence farmer holds a stunted maize cob in his field outside Harare, January 20, 2016. About 14 million people face hunger in Southern Africa because of a drought that has been exacerbated by an El Nino weather pattern, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said on Monday. In Zimbabwe, 1.5 million people, more than 10 percent of the population, face hunger, WFP said. (Photo by Philimon Bulawayo/Reuters)

Attendees look at Volkswagen's BUDD-e, a long distance electric vehicle, displayed during a press event at CES 2016 at The Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas on January 5, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada. CES, the world's largest annual consumer technology trade show, runs from January 6-9 and is expected to feature 3,600 exhibitors showing off their latest products and services to more than 150,000 attendees. (Photo by David Becker/Getty Images)

A villager jumps during “Los Sidros y Las Comedias”, a traditional festival in Spain's northern village of Valdesoto, January 8, 2017. (Photo by Eloy Alonso/Reuters)

In this April 4, 2015, photo, Marilia Skraba, center, of Brazil, applies makeup while waiting to compete in the Miss Viva Las Vegas contest during the Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend in Las Vegas. The event draws thousands of people from around the world. (Photo by John Locher/AP Photo)

Participant Noa performs in a drag queen competition during carnival festivities in Las Palmas, on the Spanish Canary Island of Gran Canaria, February 27, 2017. (Photo by Borja Suarez/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)

Participants gather before the start of a candlelight procession at the end of a three-day "Day of The Dead" (Dia de los Muertos) celebration in Old Town San Diego, California November 2, 2015. (Photo by Mike Blake/Reuters)

The car of Dan Wheldon of England driver of the #77 Bowers & Wilkins Sam Schmidt Motorsports Dallara Honda (left) flies in the air during the Las Vegas Indy 300 part of the IZOD IndyCar World Championships presented by Honda on October 16, 2011 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images)