A sculpture of a swimming man is displayed on the banks of the Thames on September 18, 2007 in London. The new artwork, unveiled today, is to promote a new television programme set in a tattoo parlour. (Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

A man stands next to his giant pumpkins as he waits for them to be weighed in at the 34th Annual Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off October 8, 2007 in Half Moon Bay, California. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Ленинград – Ueban. Necessary explanation: “Ueban” is a very offensive word in Russian. Approximate translation: stupid, inept person. Obviously, humor is in contrast with the handsome man from Bollywood (by the way, the Indians made the clip, and this is noticeable).

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)