Lightning strikes the Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower) in downtown on June 12, 2013 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Denver Broncos cheerleaders during the third quarter. The Denver Broncos played the Kansas City Chiefs at Sports Authority Field at Mile High in Denver, Colo. on September 14, 2014. (Photo by Aaron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post via Getty Images)

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)

Members of Chinese Shaolin Temple Warrior Monks perform martial arts during the “Cultures of China, Festival of Spring” Gala in Toronto, Canada, on February 27, 2016. (Photo by Zou Zheng/Xinhua/Sipa USA)

Cass Gilmore harvests cranberries in a bog at Gilmore Cranberry Company in Carver, Massachusetts September 14, 2015, the beginning of the cranberry harvesting season. According to the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers' Association, 200,000,000 pounds of cranberries are grown annually in Massachusetts. (Photo by Brian Snyder/Reuters)

South African singer and songwriter Tyla poses with the award for Best Afrobeats for “Water” during the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards in Elmont, New York, U.S., September 11, 2024. (Photo by Andrew Kelly/Reuters)

Actress Millie Bobby Brown (with her dog) during an interview with host Jimmy Fallon on Thursday, February 29, 2024 in New York. (Photo by: Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty Images)

A double rainbow is seen above a woman holding an umbrella and selling snacks along the road in Siaya county, Kenya on May 3, 2020. (Photo by Thomas Mukoya/Reuters)