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)

Garbage pickers collect ride on donkey cart while looking for recyclable materials at a rubbish dump in the outskirts of Baghdad, Iraq, August 23, 2016. Despite its huge untapped oil and gas reserves and steadily rising oil output and revenue, 23 percent of the population live below the poverty line, according to the Ministry of Planning. (Photo by Khalid al Mousily/Reuters)

Mikaela Shiffrin of the U.S. celebrates after winning the women's slalom competition with Santa Claus during the FIS Ski World Cup in Levi, Finland on November 20, 2022. (Photo by Jussi Nukari/Lehtikuva via Reuters)

Winner Petra Vlhova from Slovakia celebrates on the podium of the FIS women's World Cup slalom in Zagreb, the “Snow Queen Trophy 2022”, on January 4, 2022. (Photo by Antonio Bronic/Reuters)

English heavyweight Joe Joyce celebrates after defeating Christian Hammer during the WBC Silver Silver and WBO International Heavyweight Title fight between Joe Joyce and Christian Hammer at OVO Arena Wembley on July 02, 2022 in London, England. (Photo by Andrew Couldridge/Action Images via Reuters)

Moldova's Victor Ciobanu in action with Georgia's Dato Chkhartishvili during the men's 60kg semi final at the World Wrestling Olympic Games Qualifier in Sofia, Bulgaria on May 8, 2021. (Photo by Stoyan Nenov/Reuters)

Russia's Dina Averina competes in the ball event of the rhythmic gymnastics individual final at the 2019 European Games in Minsk on June 23, 2019. (Photo by Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP Photo)

Finland's Heta Tuuri competes in the women's high jump qualification during the World Athletics Championships at the National Athletics Centre in Budapest on August 25, 2023. (Photo by Ben Stansall/AFP Photo)