Indian children work nearby to their parents at a construction project in front of the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on January 30, 2010 in New Delhi, India. The children accompany their parents to the work site, where if they are prepared to work, they will receive money for bread an milk and be provided with dinner by the contractor. The sheer scale of the project has drawn an enormous population of migrant workers from all over India.

A Balinese Hindu blows fire, during a parade carrying Ogoh-ogoh effigies symbolising evil spirits, during a ritual before Nyepi, the day of silence, in Palembang, South Sumatra province, Indonesia March 8, 2016. Nyepi is a day of silence for self-reflection celebrating the Balinese Hindu new year, where people may not use lights, light fires, work, travel nor enjoy entertainment. (Photo by Darren Whiteside/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)

Two men try to load their just purchased Samsung 55" TV into a car, at a Best Buy store in Fairfax, Virginia on November 26, 2015, on a Black Friday sale that started a day earlier during Thanksgiving evening. The US holiday shopping season kicks off with "Black Friday" – the day after the Thanksgiving holiday – with a frenzy expected at stores around the country as retailers slash prices. (Photo by Paul J. Richards/AFP Photo)

Saintsetseg Jambaldorj, a member of the Tsaatan ethnic minority, one of the last remaining groups of nomadic reindeer herders in East Taiga, Mongolia, wearing a traditional deel, on July 5, 2016. (Photo by Madoka Ikegami/Barcroft Images)

July gestures next to her boyfriend Jason Schaller while they are suspended from hooks pierced through their skins by professional body artist Wei Yilaien at a bar in Shanghai, China September 16, 2018. “I like being unique and I don't like doing things that many people are aware of and would accept”, said Wei, 24, who staged the show of extreme body piercing in China's normally buttoned down financial capital. (Photo by Aly Song/Reuters)

Arctic wolves in their new enclosure in the wildlife park in Hanau, Germany, 10 February 2015. The pack is one of the park's main attractions, which specializes in local and European breeds. (Photo by Boris Roessler/EPA)

Canada's Mandy Marchak (R) is taken down by France's Pauline Biscarat during the final match of the Hong Kong Sevens rugby women's invitational cup in Hong Kong March 28, 2014. (Photo by Tyrone Siu/Reuters)