In this handout photo provided by Warner Brothers Pictures and Village Roadshow Pictures, Tom Cruise plays Lieutenant Colonel Bill Cage, a soldier who replays his last day while trying to fight aliens, in director Doug Liman's “All You Need Is Kill”. The film is set to premiere on March 14, 2014. (Photo by David James/Warner Brothers Pictures)

A participant in the traditional dance of Los Historiantes poses for a picture prior to performing in the festivity held in the honour of Saint James, in Santiago Nonualco July 22, 2015. The traditional dance was brought to Latin America by the Spanish, and participants each dramatise an episode of the battles between the Christians and the Moors that took place on the Iberian Peninsula about eight centuries ago, according to the dancers. (Photo by Jose Cabezas/Reuters)

In this June 6, 1966 file photo, civil rights activist James Meredith pulls himself across Highway 51 after being shot in Hernando, Miss. Meredith, who defied segregation to enroll at the University of Mississippi in 1962, completed the march from Memphis, Tenn., to Jackson, Miss., after being treated for his wounds. (Photo by Jack Thornell/AP Photo)

Drag queens Maude Boate, Anita Wiglit and Kita Mean pose for a photograph before boarding the NSW TrainLink Silver City Stiletto train at Central station in Sydney, Australia, 12 September 2019. Drag queens and kings will travel to the outback NSW town of Broken Hill to attend the annual Broken Heel festival, paying homage to the iconic Australian film “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert”. (Photo by James Gourley/AAP)

A horse is ridden out of the River Eden after being washed on the first day of the Appleby Horse Fair on June 7, 2018 in Appleby, England. The fair is an annual gathering for Gypsy, Romany and travelling communities. The event has existed under the protection of a charter granted by James II since 1685 and it remains one of the key meeting points for these communities. Around 10,000 travellers are expected to attend the event who traditionally come to buy and sell horses and it offers an opportunity for the traveller community to come together to celebrate their heritage and culture. (Photo by Ian Forsyth/Getty Images)

Artist Jeff Koons sculpture Balloon Monkey (Magenta), 2006-13, with an estimate of £6,000,000-10,000,000 on display in St James's Square, London, before being sold by Christie's to raise funds for humanitarian aid for Ukraine. Picture date: Tuesday June 14, 2022. (Photo by Yui Mok/PA Images via Getty Images)

“A prototype lunar lander was destroyed on August 9, 2012, at Kennedy Space Center during its first free flight”. – James Dean via Florida Today

Photo: Morpheus Ground Level Hot Fire. Photo Date: April 2nd 2012. Location: VTB Flight Complex; Photographer: Joe Bibby

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)