Racing driver J. Gaal at the wheel of car number 26 at the RAC Tourist Trophy, run, for the first time, over the Four Inch Course on the Isle of Man, 17th September 1908. Gaal is racing in waterproofs. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Hulton Archive/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)

This is Raymond, an orphaned koala that was found abandoned beside a road in Brisbane, Australia. He was named after the man who found him.

French artist Philippe Pasqua has unveiled a new work of art meant to represent the strong bond between man and car. The piece is a Ferrari F430 whose bodywork was completely coated in leather, and then properly tattooed.

A man holds onto a tree by the seashore (possibly along the Shore Parkway Greenway) against severe winds during Hurricane Carol's assault on the Northeastern seaboard, Brooklyn, New York, August 31, 1954. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

This photo provided by the Alameda County Sheriff's Office shows a man who was possibly trying to burglarize an abandoned Chinese restaurant in San Lorenzo, Calif., trapped in a grease vent before he was rescued Wednesday, December 12, 2018. Officials say he had been trapped for two days. Deputies and firefighters were called to the vacant building on Wednesday after someone heard cries for help. The sheriff tweeted that the man was trespassing and possibly trying to burglarize the empty restaurant. (Photo by Alameda County Sheriff's Office via AP Photo)