A frontline worker in personal protective equipment (PPE) sprays a flammable liquid on a burning funeral pyre of a man who died from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at a crematorium on the outskirts of Mumbai, India, April 15, 2021. (Photo by Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters)

Pigeon fancier Yonisbel Santana poses for a photo at his rooftop in Havana, Cuba, May 18, 2021. Havana's pigeon keepers crane out of a window, intently watching the grey birds take flight. Mostly staying indoors due to the country's worst outbreak of COVID-19 since the coronavirus pandemic began in March last year, Cubans are increasingly breeding pigeons as a form of escape. (Photo by Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters)

Police officers detain a Femen activist during a demonstration of supporters of former Spanish dictator Francisco Franco, during annual gathering held on the week of the 45th anniversary of the dictator's death, in Madrid, Spain, November 22, 2020. (Photo by Javier Barbancho/Reuters)

People brave strong wind on the promenade of Victoria Habour as tropical cyclone Ma-on approaches Hong Kong, Wednesday, August 24, 2022. Tropical Storm Ma-on was gaining strength as it headed for Hong Kong and other parts of southeastern China on Wednesday after displacing thousands in the Philippines. (Photo by Anthony Kwan/AP Photo)

Romanian riot police detain a man, face covered in blood, after minor clashes erupted during a protest in Bucharest, Romania, Thursday, February 2, 2017. Brief clashes broke out between protesters and police in Romania¹s capital, as tens of thousands of people protested for the second night a government decision to decriminalise official misconduct. (Photo by Vadim Ghirda/AP Photo)

An employee works on a glass sphere for Christmas and New Year decoration at the “Biryusinka” toy factory, which has been producing decorations and toys for the festive season since 1942, in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, Russia, November 16, 2016. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)

On the November 24, 2025, children are making human faces by collecting fallen leaves in the forest in front of the Yuseong-gu Office in Daejeon. (Photo by Shin Hyeon-jong)

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)