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 firefighter uses a saw to open a metal gate while fighting a fire in a convenience store and residence during clashes after the funeral of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, Maryland in the early morning hours of April 28, 2015. (Photo by Eric Thayer/Reuters)

“People and Space”. Winner: Wanderer in Patagonia by Yuri Zvezdny (Russia) A lone stargazer stares up at the stars of our galaxy, the Milky Way, as they stretch across the night sky over the glacier “White Stones” (Piedras Blancas) in the Los Glaciares National Park, Argentina. El Chaltén, Santa Cruz Province, Argentina, 27 September 2016 iOptron Sky-Tracker mount, Sony A7S camera, 18 mm f/2.8 lens, ISO 5000, 30-second exposure Wanderer in Patagonia. (Photo by Yuri Zvezdny/Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017)

Belgium. Rosalie, 9, goes to school in Brussels. “At my school we have separate toilets for girls and boys on every floor. My classroom is on the 3rd floor. We have 22 toilets, which are shared between 230 pupils and 20 adults. The teachers at school let us go to the toilet whenever we need to”. (Photo by Tim Dirven/WSUP/Panos)

A visitor takes a picture of a display bearing hand prints of war heroes from the War of Resistance against Japan, at Jianchuan Museum Cluster in Anren, Sichuan Province, China, May 13, 2016. Tucked away in southwestern China's Sichuan province, a private collector stands virtually alone in exhibiting relics from the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution. Monday marks the 50th anniversary of the start of the political movement, with no official commemorations planned. Official records whitewash the details of both periods, but admit that Mao made major mistakes. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

A pro-Russian rebel shows his t-shirt depicting Russian President Vladimir Putin at a checkpoint in the village of Chornukhyne near the town of Debaltseve, north-east from Donetsk, March 12, 2015. (Photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters)

“Freestyle skiing is an acrobatic form of technical and aerial skiing. It is organized into a number of different disciplines”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Freeskier Chris Booth of Australia launches off a drop during the World Heli Challenge freestyle day in backcountry at Minaret Station on July 31, 2011 in Wanaka, New Zealand. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

File photo taken on July 24, 2011 shows the scenery of karst landform in Dacai Township under Maonan Autonomous County of Huaijiang, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The World Heritage Committee on Monday inscribed an extension of South China Karst, a natural World Heritage Site since 2007, into the UNESCO's World Heritage List. (Photo by Wang Xiufa/Xinhua)