The Prince Albert Cairn, built in 1862 by Queen Victoria, is surrounded by snow and ice, near Balmoral, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, Friday November 22, 2024. (Photo by Jane Barlow/PA Wire via AP Photo)

English television personality Georgia Harrison is seen attending House of CB Christmas Party at Old Sessions House on November 29, 2023 in London, England. (Photo by Ricky Vigil M/Justin E Palmer/GC Images)

English actress Danielle Harold shot exclusively for the Sun on Sunday, September 7, 2023 in London. (Photo by Olivia West/The Sun)

A man walks towards a wave breaking on a rock pool at North Narrabeen Beach in Sydney on April 18, 2025, as large swells hit the east coast of Australia. (Photo by David Gray/AFP Photo)

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)

Afghan women and a boy make their way in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, November 15, 2015. (Photo by Rahmat Gul/AP Photo)

An Israeli spectator watches a giant T-Rex balloon during the Purim parade festival in Petah Tikva, Israel, Thursday, March 24, 2016. The Jewish holiday of Purim commemorates the Jews' salvation from genocide in ancient Persia, as recounted in the Book of Esther. (Photo by Oded Balilty/AP Photo)

In this Saturday, July 14, 2018, file photo, waves caused by high tide envelops a man standing outside his house near the Arabian Sea in Mumbai, India. The man was washed away by the wave and rescued by locals about 100 meters away from the spot. (Photo by Rajanish Kakade/AP Photo)