A water buffalo is pictured across from the Nahr Bin Omar oilfield in Iraq's southern province of Basra on July 18, 2022. (Photo by Hussein Faleh/AFP Photo)

A Muslim dervish whirls during celebrations for Mawlid al-Nabi that marks the birthday of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad, in Peshawar, Pakistan, Sunday, October 9, 2022. Thousands of Muslims take part in religious processions, ceremonies and distribute free meals among the poor to mark the holiday. (Photo by Muhammad Sajjad/AP Photo)

Daring motorists entertain spectators by dangerously driving cars and motorcycles on a vertical “wall of death” in Manikgonj, Bangladesh on January 17, 2023. Performers travel without any protective gear at speeds of up to 80 km/h so that their vehicles can balance on the 25 feet high wooden plank. (Photo by Syed Mahabubul Kader/ZUMA Press Wire/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Hindu devotees celebrate Diwali with oil lamps, candles, Incense and flowers at Dhakeshwari Temple in Dhaka on November 12, 2023. (Photo by Syed Mahabubul Kader/ZUMA Press Wire/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

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 woman carries a piglet as she runs on ice during a running challenge in Changsha, Hunan province February 8, 2015. A total of 20 people participated in the challenge requiring them to choose a pig ranging between 15 kg and 115 kg in weight, and carrying it while running on a 20.15-metre-long ice track. The participants that complete the challenge will be rewarded with the pig they carried, local media reported. (Photo by Darwin Zhou/Reuters)

An Israeli soldier salutes as she attends a military cemetery ahead of the start of Remembrance Day at the graves of killed comrades on May 8, 2011 in Jerusalem, Israel. The 64th anniversary of the creation of Israel in 1948 has fallen on the Monday as determined by the Hebrew calendar and is preceded by the annual memorial recognising Israel's fallen soldiers. (Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

Israeli police officers confront demonstrators as Israelis protest against rising housing prices and social inequalities on July 30, 2011 in Tel Aviv, Israel. Tens of thousands of Israelis took to the streets in 10 cities across the country to protest against the high cost of living, including more than 50,000 in downtown Tel Aviv. The demonstrators rallied in support of hundreds of people who have set up protest camps against the government's economic and social policies. (Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)