Sergei Bobkov, 59, paints Siberian cedar nut oil onto a life-size sculpture of Pallas's Cat, also known in Russia as Manul Cat, which he made from Siberian cedar wood shavings using more than 700 thousand pieces over four years, in the village of Kozhany, southwest of the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, Russia, April 28, 2017. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)

A woman strikes a police truck with her hand during a protest march in Santiago, Chile, Thursday, April 16, 2015. Thousands of students marched through the streets of Chile's capital to protest recent corruption scandals and to complain about delays in a promised education overhaul. While it was largely peaceful, violence broke out at the end when hooded protesters threw rocks and gasoline bombs at police. (Photo by Luis Hidalgo/AP Photo)

Close Encounter of the Insect Kind: “Check out the awesome face on this praying mantis. I can't get over the mouth, it's like something from a science fiction movie. Of all photographic styles macro is definitely my favorite. I am constantly amazed, in every photo that I take, by the intricate level of detail that exists on even the smallest of creatures. It's a stark reminder that a very complex and infinitely beautiful world exists just beyond our human-sized level of perception. Photo taken in Donnybrook, Queensland, Australia” – Andrew Young. (Photo by Andrew Young/National Geographic Photo Contest via The Atlantic)

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)

Nine year old girl Barsati reacts while walking on a tightrope in Mumbai on February 11, 2014. Barsati, and her younger brother Rajababu, (4) earn an average of around 2000 rupees (32 dollars) per day from pedestrians and tourists performing various acts on the tightrope near the city's iconic landmark Gateway of India. (Photo by Indranil Mukherjee/AFP Photo)

Iraqi troops fire artillery towards Islamic State (IS) group jihadists' positions in west Mosul on March 11, 2017 during the ongoing battle to retake the city from the group. (Photo by Aris Messinis/AFP Photo)

Men rest after salvaging metal on the 30th floor of the “Tower of David” skyscraper in Caracas February 3, 2014. A 45-storey skyscraper in the center of Venezuela's capital Caracas is a slum, probably the highest in the world. Dubbed the “Tower of David”, the building was intended to be a shining new financial center but was abandoned around 1994 after the death of its developer – banker and horse-breeder David Brillembourg – and the collapse of the financial sector. (Photo by Jorge Silva/Reuters)

In this photo taken Saturday, January 24, 2015, a child makes a face while having her photo taken with the snow covered slopes of the Nanshan ski resort behind her in Beijing. As Beijing makes a final push in its bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics, Chinese President Xi Jinping says winning the bid will encourage over 300 million Chinese to take up winter sports by 2022, according to state-run Xinhua News agency. (Photo by Ng Han Guan/AP Photo)