“Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puʻuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. The attack on Pearl Harbor by the Empire of Japan on December 7, 1941, brought the United States into World War II”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Women fire fighters directing a hose after the Japanese attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbour (Pearl Harbor). (Photo by Three Lions)

Passengers prepare to take part in the No Pants Subway Ride in Prague, Czech Republic, Sunday, January 8, 2017. The No Pants Subway Ride began in 2002 in New York as a stunt and has taken place in cities around the world since then. (Photo by Petr David Josek/AP Photo)

A relative (L) of Champa Devi, 88, sits next to her body, minutes after her death at Mukti Bhavan (Salvation House) at Varanasi, in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, June 21, 2014. The city of Varanasi, on the banks of the River Ganges, is widely considered Hinduism's holiest city and many Hindus believe that dying there and having their remains scattered in the Ganges allows their soul to escape a cycle of death and rebirth, attaining “moksha” or salvation. “Mukti Bhavan” or “Salvation House”, is a charity-run hostel that caters for people who wish to come to Varanasi to die. Guests can normally stay up to two weeks after which, if they haven't yet passed away, they are gently asked to leave. (Photo by Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)

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)

An Israeli spectator watches a giant T-Rex balloon during the Purim parade festival in Petah Tikva, Israel, Thursday, March 24, 2016. The Jewish holiday of Purim commemorates the Jews' salvation from genocide in ancient Persia, as recounted in the Book of Esther. (Photo by Oded Balilty/AP Photo)

Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) Police Officer Keith Flood trains with his K-9 partner Doc, a German Shepherd, inside the “warehouse room” at the new MTA Police Department Canine Training Center in Stormville, New York, U.S., June 6, 2016. (Photo by Mike Segar/Reuters)

A Snowboarder participates in a waterslide contest, which consists of gliding over a water pool embedded in snow, during the closing event of the ski resort of Nendaz, southwestern Switzerland, Monday, April 21, 2014. (Photo by Maxime Schmid/AP Photo/Keystone)

Emma White, of Team Cyclocrossworld, hits the dirt hard during the USA Cycling Cyclo-cross National Championship Elite Women's race at the Valmont Bike Park in Boulder, Colorado, on January 12, 2014. (Photo by Jeremy Papasso/The Daily Camera)