China Airlines stewardess Wang Wen Hwang leaps from the burning China Airlines plane after assisting the passengers to safety February 27, 1980. Miss Wang saved most of the lives of the passengers despite her injuries. She was the last to leave the planes. (Photo by AP Photo)

A man carries floats as he walks on an algae covered beach as a truck collecting algae passes by, along the coastline in Qingdao, Shandong province, July 6, 2015. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)

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)

Miley Cyrus broke onto the scene as “Hannah Montana” in 2006. Since the show ended, she’s been desperate to shed the Disney image, first with “Can’t Be Tamed” in 2010, then with open marijuana use and twerking on Robin Thicke’s crotch in 2013. (Photo by Getty Images)

Adolf Hitler, Alfred Rosenberg (left) and Dr. Friedrich Weber of the Freikorps Oberland (Oberland Free Corps), during the Munich Putsch. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images). 1923

Indian Muslim devotees travel in an auto rickshaw during the Urs festival in Ajmer, India, Thursday, April 23, 2015. Thousands of devotees from different parts of India travel to the shrine of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chisht for the annual festival marking the saint's death anniversary. (Photo by Deepak Sharma/AP Photo)

People wearing costumes attend the annual water-splashing festival to mark the New Year of the Dai minority in Jinghong, Yunnan province, April 13, 2015. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)

A participant poses with his laptop during the 33rd Chaos Communication Congress on its opening day on December 27, 2016 in Hamburg, Germany. The annual event is bringing together 12,000 computer hackers and activists who will meet over the next four days to share expertise and discuss topics related to the society and the digital world. (Photo by Morris MacMatzen/Getty Images)