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 folk performer (front R) with make-up and props takes part in a “Blood Shehuo” parade, during a performance in Linyi county, Shanxi province March 21, 2015. “Shehuo” is the common name of Chinese traditional activities consisting of folk performances in northern China. The “Blood Shehuo” performers use make-up and props to re-enact scenes of horror in classic Chinese novels like Water Margin. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Juan Carlos Vilchez, 18-months-old, dressed to represent horror movie icon Chucky, looks into a storefront mall window, in Managua, Nicaragua, Friday, October 31, 2014. Juan Carlos is wearing a first place winner that he won earlier, for best Halloween costume in his age group. (Photo by Esteban Felix/AP Photo)

The giant inflatable Rubber Duck installation by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman floats on the Parramatta River, as part of the 2014 Sydney Festival, in Western Sydney, January 10, 2014. The creation is five stories tall and five stories wide and has been seen floating in various cities around the world since 2007. (Photo by Jason Reed/Reuters)

Sony is marketing the remake of the Stephen King horror movie Carrie with with “Telekinetic Coffee Shop Surprise”, a prank video set in a New York cafe. Viral marketing firm ThinkModo shot the film over two days in ‘sNice cafe on 8th Ave, New York, with actors posing as customers. As people wandered in off the street for their coffee, stuntman Travis Gravis spilled coffee on a laptop belonging to actress Andrea Morales.

Fireplace for children, Trondheim, Norway, by Haugen/Zohar. The children of Trondheim come to sit around the fire and tell stories in this whimsical cone hut, made with materials recycled from a construction site. (Photo by Jason Havneraas/The Guardian)