Ratko Mladic makes his first appearance at the International Criminal Tribunal on June 3, 2011 in The Hague, Netherlands. Ex-Bosnian Serb army leader Ratko Mladic will make his first appearance at The Hague war crimes tribunal after being declared fit to stand trial. Mladic was arrested a week ago after going into hiding for the past 16 years and is charged with atrocities committed during the Bosnian war. (Photo Serge Ligtenberg/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)

A girl gets her hands decorated with traditional henna patterns at a roadside stall ahead of Eid-al Fitr to mark the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan in Karachi, Pakistan, July 17, 2015. (Photo by Akhtar Soomro/Reuters)

After model Giulia Salemi attended the Venice Film Festival in a dress that looked like she had forgotten her underwear The Sun adapted a dress and Anita Kaushik 24 from Southfields went out on the London streets to share her experience on September 5, 2016. (Photo by Stewart Williams/The Sun)

A member of Brazilian samba school “Aguia de Ouro” takes part in a parade at Anhembi sambadrome as part of carnival in Sao Paulo, Brazil, early 25 February 2017. The Sao Paulo Carnival runs from 24 to 28 february 2017. (Photo by Fernando Bizerra Jr./EPA)

Model Ashley Graham is seen walking in Soho on May 9, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Raymond Hall/GC Images)

Lily Donaldson attends the “Loveless (Nelyubov)” screening during the 70th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 18, 2017 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Tristan Fewings/Getty Images)

Celebrities attend The National Reality TV Awards 2016 at the Porchester Hall in London, United Kingdom on September 29, 2016. (Photo by FameFlynet UK)