An incredible clear-air lightning display from storms to the east of Noonamah, just outside Darwin on April 6, 2015. (Photo by Jacci Ingham/The Guardian)

People walk through Manhattan in a snow storm on December 16, 2020 in New York City. New York City is expected to get between 10 inches and a foot of snow on Wednesday and Thursday in what is the first winter storm of the year. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

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)

Florence Welch of Florence And The Machine performs at Spark Arena on January 30, 2019 in Auckland, New Zealand. (Photo by Dave Simpson/WireImage)

On Dale A. Browne’s first trip to Yellowstone, he “got the best shot” he’d ever taken after chasing this weasel for 30 minutes. The trip for the 58-year-old from Manassas, Va., was a gift from his wife and an opportunity to improve his photography skills with the help of guide and professional photographer Tom Murphy. (Murphy did not assist in the taking of this photo). (Photo by Dale A. Browne)

Recreation time for the seminarists at St. Ignatius Loyala shrine at Azpeitia, Gipuzkoa (Guipúzcoa) in Spain. (Photo by Evans/Getty Images). 1955

Australian ballet dancers rehearse their moves on Whitehaven Beach on June 11, 2010 on Hamilton Island, Australia. (Photo by James Morgan/Hamilton Island via Getty Images)

Lingerie brand Etam presents its latest Paris fashion show with live music at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, France, September 26, 2017. (Photo by Charles Platiau/Reuters)