Characters from Star Wars pose for a photocall to promote the release of Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace 3D at The London Eye on February 8, 2012 in London, England. (Photo by Dave J. Hogan/Getty Images)

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)

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)

Courthouse facility dogs are professionally trained facility dogs that are graduates from an accredited assistance dog organization that is a member of Assistance Dogs International. They assist crime victims, witnesses and others during the investigation and prosecution of crimes as well as other legal proceedings. Courthouse facility dogs also provide assistance to Drug Court and Mental Health Court participants during their recovery from drugs, alcohol, mental illness and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Police officers look on as they stand guard to secure the area where Dutch celebrity crime reporter Peter R. de Vries, known for his reporting on some of the most renowned criminals in the Netherlands, was reportedly shot and seriously injured, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, July 6, 2021. (Photo by Eva Plevier/Reuters)

Venezuela: An anti-government protester wearing a Guy Fawkes mask throws a molotov cocktail at the Bolivarian National Police during clashes in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, April 17, 2014. Opposition protesters have been demonstrating against high crime, high inflation and shortages of basic goods since mid-February. (Photo by Ramon Espinosa/AP Photo)

“The Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae) is a rare tiger subspecies that inhabits the Indonesian island of Sumatra. It was classified as critically endangered by IUCN in 2008 as the population is projected to be 441 to 679 individuals, with no subpopulation having an effective population size larger than 50 individuals, with a declining trend”. – Wikipedia

This photo taken on July 25, 2012 one of 14 preserved bodies of critically-endangered Sumatran tigers seized as members of the Indonesian national police and the special crime unit inspect the scene at a warehouse in Cibubur, south of Jakarta. Indonesian police seized 14 preserved bodies of critically-endangered Sumatran tigers in a raid on a house near Jakarta, a spokesman said on July 19. (Photo by Bay Ismoyo/AFP Photo)

Models pose for a photograph backstage before the Miss Koch beauty pageant, titled “Getting to Zero Teenage Pregnancy”, at the Korogocho slums in Nairobi, December 6, 2014. The winner of the pageant, Miss Koch Kenya, will represent and lead the non-governmental organization to encourage youths in slums to overcome challenges such as poverty, crime, drug and sexual abuse, according to organisers. (Photo by Thomas Mukoya/Reuters)