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)

Selena Gomez, left, and Taylor Swift arrive at the MTV Video Music Awards at the Microsoft Theater on Sunday, August 30, 2015, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP Photo)

A young woman cools herself in a fountain in Budapest, Hungary July 6, 2015. Over the weekend, a heat wave has reached Hungary with temperatures topping 38 degrees Celsius (100.4 degrees Fahrenheit). (Photo by Laszlo Balogh/Reuters)

A migrant boy sits on railway tracks at a train station in Tovarnik, Croatia, September 20, 2015. (Photo by Antonio Bronic/Reuters)

A woman looks towards part of an artwork called “Lichen! Libido! (London!) Chastity!” by Anthea Hamilton, one of the four artists shortlisted for the Turner Prize 2016, as it is displayed at the Tate Britain gallery in London, Monday, September 26, 2016. The Turner Prize aims to promote public debate around new developments in contemporary British art. (Photo by Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP Photo)

Bison along the Bitterroot Valley's Eastside Highway north of Stevensville, Montana, are covered in snow following a blizzard on November 23, 2010. (Photo by Perry Backus/The Missoulian)

A racegoer uses the camera on her phone to check her hair on the opening day of the Grand National Festival at Aintree Racecourse on April 3, 2014 in Aintree, England. The three days of racing attracts thousands of racegoers and fans from across the world. The meeting culminates with millions of pounds being wagered on the runners taking part in Europe's richest jump race, the Grand National. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

A masked man in military fatigues brings a blindfolded Irma Krat, arrested and held by pro-Russian protestors before her meeting with journalists near of occupied police station in Slaviansk, Ukraine, 21 April 2014. Pro-Russian activists are demanding broader autonomy from Kiev and closer ties to Russia. Pro-Russian activists continued occupying government, police and other administrative buildings in eastern Ukrainian cities, in defiance of an ultimatum by the Ukrainian government to lay down their weapons. Russia, the United States, the European Union and Ukraine on 17 April had agreed on steps to de-escalate the crisis in Ukraine during talks in Geneva, Switzerland. (Photo by Roman Pilipey/EPA)