High winds blow sand across the highway near the original north shore of Owens Lake, now miles from the nearest pool of water, on May 5, 2007 near Lone Pine, California. (Photo by David McNew/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)

A woman cries while sitting on a road amid the destroyed city of Natori, Miyagi Prefecture in northern Japan March 13, 2011, after a massive earthquake and tsunami. Five years on from the tsunami that triggered meltdowns at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant, the page is anything but turned. A magnitude 9 earthquake and towering tsunami on March 11, 2011 killed nearly 16,000 people along Japan's northeastern coast and left more than 2,500 missing. The 10-metre (33-foot) tsunami swept away everything in its path, including houses, ships, cars and farm buildings. (Photo by Asahi Shimbun/Reuters)

Base jumpers leap from the 300-metre high skydeck of Malaysia's landmark Kuala Lumpur Tower against the backdrop of the city's skyline on October 3, 2016 during the annual International KL Tower Base-Jump event. (Photo by Manan Vatsyayana/AFP Photo)

Actor George Clooney from the film “Ides Of March” arrives at the Hotel Excelsior during the 68th Venice Film Festival on August 31, 2011 in Venice, Italy. (Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)

First graders of a cadet's lyceum attend a ceremony to mark the start of the new school year in Kiev, Ukraine, September 1, 2015. September 1 marks the start of a new academic year for students in Ukraine.(Photo by Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters)

North Korean soldiers keep watch at the bank of the Yalu River, near the North Korean town of Sinuiju, opposite Dandong in China's Liaoning province, September 10, 2016. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)

President Barack Obama with does the tango with a dancer during the State Dinner at the Centro Cultural Kirchner, Wednesday, March 23, 2016, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. (Photo by Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Photo)