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)

Members of the police forces of the Republic of Srpska march during a parade marking the 32nd anniversary of the Republic of Srpska, in the Bosnian town of Banja Luka, 240 kms northwest of Sarajevo, Tuesday, January 9, 2024. The United States on Tuesday warned that ongoing celebrations of a Bosnian Serb self-proclaimed national holiday were in violation of Bosnia's constitution and a 1995 peace agreement, and as such amounted to a criminal offense. The Jan. 9 holiday commemorates the date in 1992 when Bosnian Serbs declared the creation of their own state in Bosnia, igniting the country's devastating four-year war that killed more than 100,000 people. (Photo by Radivoje Pavicic/AP Photo)

Members of the police forces of Republic of Srpska march during a parade marking the 30th anniversary of the Republic of Srpska in Banja Luka, northern Bosnia, Sunday, January 9, 2022. This week Bosnian Serb political leader Milorad Dodik was slapped with new U.S. sanctions for alleged corruption. Dodik maintains the West is punishing him for championing the rights of ethnic Serbs in Bosnia – a dysfunctional country of 3.3 million that's never truly recovered from a fratricidal war in the 1990s that became a byname for ethnic cleansing and genocide. (Photo by Radivoje Pavicic/AP Photo)

Supporters of Ratko Mladic wave flags with his picture and reading in Serbian “Serbian hero” during a rally organized by the ultra nationalist Serbian Radical Party in front of the Parliament building on May 29, 2011 in Belgrade, Serbia. Some 7,000 supporters of the former Bosnian Serb army chief Ratko Mladic, who was arrested on Thursday in a village in Serbia after 16 years on the run, took to the streets of Belgrade, to hear speeches and protest Mladic's arrest. Mladic, who is facing extradition to the The Hague, is accused of war crimes, including the 1995 massacre of 7,500 Muslin men and boys in Srebrenica. (Photo by Srdjan Stevanovic/Getty Images)

The Imperial Russian Ballet members wait to perform Tchaikovsky's “Swan Lake” at Arena hall in central Bosnian town of Zenica December 7, 2014. (Photo by Dado Ruvic/Reuters)

Kosovar Bosnian women help the bride Sellma Demirovic (C) to be dressed with traditional clothes on her wedding day for a traditional ceremony in the village of Donje Ljubinje, Kosovo, 14 August 2021. (Photo by Valdrin Xhemaj/EPA/EFE)

A design studio has launched its own dogs of war – by cleverly blending iconic Second World War planes with their canine counterparts. Photo: Wellington bomber with Golden Retreiver camoflage. A design studio has launched its own dogs of war – by cleverly blending iconic Second World War planes with their canine counterparts. (Photo by BNPS)

Star Wars actors on the Cantina set at Star Wars Celebration: The Ultimate Fan Experience held at the Anaheim Convention Center on Thursday, April 16, 2015, in Anaheim, Calif. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP Photo)