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)

A model presents a creation by LARHHA during the Code'41 Andalusian Fashion Week at the Amphitheatre of Italica in Seville on March 21, 2021. (Photo by Cristina Quicler/AFP Photo)

A woman on her hen day reacts as members of the public enjoy a drink in the Grassmarket as lockdown measures are eased on April 26, 2021 in Edinburgh, United Kingdom. Cafes, beer gardens, non-essential shops and museums are reopening in Scotland today as lockdown easing continues. (Photo by Jeff J. Mitchell/Getty Images)

Ladies enjoying Ladies Day at the Grand National Festival 2022 at Aintree Racecourse, Liverpool on Friday, April 8, 2022. (Photo by Splash News and Pictures)

A participant wearing his cosplay featuring a character from an animation gets his government contact tracing QR code in the “LeaveHomeSafe” COVID-19 mobile app scanned at Ani-Com and Games exhibition in Hong Kong, Friday, July 29, 2022. (Photo by Kin Cheung/AP Photo)

Family members perform the Manene traditional rite, cleaning the relatives' preserved remains, in Lembang on August 15, 2022, which is held every three years in August and is said to bless the harvest of rice fields. (Photo by Andri Saputra/AFP Photo)

Zoo keepers feed crocodiles in their enclosure at the Madras Crocodile Bank, closed due to the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Mahabalipuram, India, August 3, 2020. (Photo by P. Ravikumar/Reuters)

Anissa Barbato from New York looks out over the city from the Edge, the highest outdoor sky deck in the Western Hemisphere on September 2, 2020 as it reopened to the public in New York. Rising 1,131 feet in the air from the heart of Hudson Yards it offers 360-degree views of New York Citys iconic skyline from the 100th floor outdoor viewing. (Photo by Timothy A. Clary/AFP Photo)