In this photo provided by Skydive Chicago, escape artist Anthony Martin falls while handcuffed and locked inside a box after being dropped from an airplane over Ottawa, Ill., Tuesday, August 6, 2013. (Photo by Joe Silva/AP Photo/Courtesy of Skydive Chicago)

A rusty revolver is seen near the body of a man, who police said was killed by police operatives, and two sachets of “Shabu” or methampethamine chloride were found on his pockets in Manila, Philippines August 17, 2017. (Photo by Erik De Castro/Reuters)

Indonesian army soldier Partika Subagyo, wearing a costume of the puppet character Bima, dances to raise money for landslide victims, in Solo, December 17, 2014, in this photo taken by Antara Foto. The landslide in Banjarnegara destroyed a village and killed at least 32 people, according to officials. (Photo by Andika Betha/Reuters/Antara Foto)

A worker stack bricks on his head at a brick factory in Lalitpur January 12, 2015. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/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)

Three prostitutes lean out of a window in Santiago, Chile, in an attempt to entice customers inside, circa 1950. (Photo by Three Lions/Getty Images)

Fisherman transport sharks to the fish market in the traditional fishing port in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, 26 August 2020. According to media reports, the marine and fisheries sector is considered as one of the affected by the coronavirus pandemic, affecting more than 3.5 million fishermen and all sectors working throughout the supply chain. (Photo by Hotli Simanjuntak/EPA/EFE)

John Pfaff lays on a fallen tree Thursday, September 10, 2020, in Salt Lake City. Two days after a windstorm wreaked havoc in Utah, many schools remain closed and tens of thousands are still without power. (Photo by Rick Bowmer/AP Photo)