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)

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)

Dancers take part in the World Salsa Festival at El Pueblo Coliseum in Cali, Colombia, 26 September 2025. (Photo by Ernesto Guzman Jr./EPA)

A man plays to the cameras as racegoers make their way home at the end of Ladies Day the second day of the Aintree Grand National Festival meeting on April 8, 2016 in Aintree, England. Today is Fabulous Friday and Ladies Day of the three-day meeting of the world famous Grand National Festival where fashion and dressing to impress is as important as the racing. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

Greece's Stefanos Tsitsipas falls after diving to return a shot against Switzerland's Stan Wawrinka during their fourth round match of the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Sunday, June 2, 2019. (Photo by Christophe Ena/AP Photo)

Racegoers shield themselves from the rain and wind at the Fairyhouse Easter Festival in Fairyhouse, Co. Meath, Ireland on April 10, 2023. (Photo by Morgan Treacy/Inpho)

US surfer Koa Rothman rides a huge swell in training for the Da Hui Backdoor Shootout 2025 event held annually at Pipeline on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii, on December 26, 2024. The “Da Hui Backdoor Shootout” in 2025 is an invitation-only surfing competition held on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii, during a holding period from January 4 to 16, 2025. (Photo by Brian Bielmann/AFP Photo)