Emma Raducanu of the United Kingdom looks on during a women's singles match against Anna Kalinskaya on day 6 of the Mubadala Citi DC Open 2025 at William H.G. FitzGerald Tennis Center on July 26, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images)

Jiff with Playboy Playmates arrives at the Playboy Super Bowl XLIX Party on Friday, January 30, 2015 in Scottsdale, Ariz. (Photo by Omar Vega/Invision/AP 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)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un pose for photographers during their meeting in Vladivostok, Russia, Thursday, April 25, 2019. Putin and Kim are set to have one-on-one meeting at the Far Eastern State University on the Russky Island across a bridge from Vladivostok. The meeting will be followed by broader talks involving officials from both sides. (Photo by Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Photo/Pool)

Cloud inversion taken at Sunrise in Mam Tor, Derbyshire, UK on August 30, 2016. (Photo by David Zdanowicz/REX Shutterstock)

Chinese tourists watch storm clouds moving along the coast towards the city of Sydney, Australia, November 6, 2015. Powerful storms swept across the city on Friday, with the Australian Bureau of Meteorology issuing a warning for severe thunderstorms with large hailstones, heavy rainfall and damaging winds, local media reported. (Photo by David Gray/Reuters)

(L-R) Ruby Zinner, 21, Caroline Reinstadler, 22, Marie Kallis, 22, and Julia Bogdanoff, 21, wearing graduation caps and gowns drink champagne while taking graduation photos in Washington Square Park amid the Coronavirus pandemic on May 09, 2021 in New York City. Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic NYU's commencement ceremony will be held virtually on May 19th. Students from the 2021 will be invited back for an in person graduation when public health guidelines allow. (Photo by Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images)

A sculpture made by activists on Lambeth bridge during the Extinction Rebellion protest in London, England on October 7, 2019. (Photo by Henry Nicholls/Reuters)