A cemetery worker dig new graves at the Xico cemetery on the outskirts of Mexico City, as the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak continues in Mexico, June 10, 2020. (Photo by Edgard Garrido/Reuters)

In this photograph taken on April 16, 2014, a veterinary staff member of the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme center conducts medical examinations on a 14-year-old male orangutan found with air gun metal pellets embedded in his body in Sibolangit district in northern Sumatra island. (Photo by Sutanta Aditya/AFP Photo)

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)

Two three-month-old female white Bengal tiger cubs play with a zoo keeper in their enclosure at the Buenos Aires' Zoo, in Argentina, on April 17, 2014. Captive white Bengal tiger Cloe, gave birth to three cubs – two females and one male – on January 14, 2014. (Photo by Juan Mabromata/AFP Photo)

A picture taken with slow shutter speed shows Emily Vaca performing in the finals of the Tenth World Salsa Festival in Cali, Colombia, 04 October 2015. (Photo by Christian Escobar Mora/EPA)

Students exercise in body training at Bishan Vocational Education Center in Chongqing, southwest China, January 13, 2016. These students were trained to be stewardesses of the high-speed train. (Photo by Xie Jie/Xinhua)

An officer of a Libyan anti-illegal immigrants unit conducts an early morning raid on migrants at hideout in Tripoli, Libya October 13, 2015. Libyan security forces charged with curbing illegal migration raided a hide-out for illegal migrants in Tripoli on Tuesday. (Photo by Hani Amara/Reuters)

A dachshund dressed as a leo walks a podium during a dachshund parade festival in St. Petersburg, Russia, Saturday, September 16, 2023. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)