Julian Ryerson of Borussia Dortmund during the Bundesliga match between Borussia Dortmund and 1. FC Union Berlin at Signal Iduna Park on April 8, 2023 in Dortmund, Germany. (Photo by Alexandre Simoes/Borussia Dortmund via Getty Images)

Aerial view of the “Viracocha III”, a boat made only from the totora reed, as it is being prepared to cross the Pacific from Chile to Australia on an expected six-month journey, La Paz, Bolivia, October 19, 2016. An expedition in a boat made only of reeds crafted by indigenous Bolivians is getting ready to cross the Pacific from South America to Australia, in a fresh attempt to prove that ancient mariners were capable of making the journey. (Photo by David Mercado/Reuters)

A priest sprinkles holy water on a believer during the Orthodox Easter service in the Holy Transfiguration Cathedral in the rebel-controlled city of Donetsk, Ukraine on May 2, 2021. (Photo by Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters)

Canada's Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps compete in the pairs short program during the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final in Beijing on December 7, 2023. (Photo by Tingshu Wang/Reuters)

Sabine Marcelis stands beside her project “RA” during The Edition III at Pyramids of Giza, in front of the Great Pyramids of Giza, on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt on October 26, 2023. (Photo by Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters)

The Boston Celtics dancers perform during the second quarter of the game between the Boston Celtics and the Miami Heat at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts on December 2, 2024. (Photo by Winslow Townson/USA Today Sports)

The first jaguar litter since 1975 was born at the Milwaukee County Zoo to Stella and Pat on November 13, 2013. The litter was on public display for the first time on March 13 when the jaguar baby's names were released. Belize schoolchildren named one Zean, which is the end of Belizean, and a public contest named the other B'alam, which means "great and powerful king" in Mayan. Photo: Stella the mother and her cub Zean rest together at The Milwaukee County Zoo. (Photo by Rick Wood)

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)