A festival goer cools down with fresh water while taking part in the Hellfest metal music festival on June 17, 2022 in Clisson, western France. (Photo by Loic Venance/AFP Photo)

Members of the Washington Wizards Dancers dance during a timeout against the Utah Jazz in the second quarter at Capital One Arena in Washington, District of Columbia on January 25, 2024. (Photo by Geoff Burke/USA TODAY Sports)

A woman jumps in the air as she poses for a photo during New Year celebrations in the Manhattan borough of New York, January 1, 2016. (Photo by Carlo Allegri/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)

Lindsay Mann (L) and Anabella Mowbray kiss as they take photos of themselves laying in the confetti on 7th Avenue in Times Square on New Year's Eve in New York January 1, 2015. (Photo by Carlo Allegri/Reuters)

Protesters begin to gather ahead of the UK Student Climate Network's Global Climate Strike at Millbank in London, England on September 20, 2019. (Photo by Gareth Fuller/PA Images via Getty Images)

Postal worker Eddie Smith, dressed as Santa Claus, waves to a neighbor on his mail route in Washington, U.S., December 21, 2021. (Photo by Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)

Oakland Athletics left fielder Tony Kemp (5) catches the ball during the first inning against the Miami Marlins at RingCentral Coliseum in Oakland, California on August 22, 2022. (Photo by Stan Szeto/USA TODAY Sports)