A doctor performs surgery on an injured man with a part of an aluminium alloy fence through his chest after a car accident in Zhumadian, Henan province, China, September 15, 2014. The doctor managed to surgically remove the piece. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

A young woman dressed as a zombie takes part in a zombie parade as part of the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival 2014 in Brussels, Belgium, 12 April 2014. More than a hundred of participants took to the streets of Brussels. (Photo by Ulien Warnand/EPA)

Police fire rubber bullets as they help an Atletico Paranaense fan during clashes between Vasco da Gama soccer fans and Atletico Paranaense fans at their Brazilian championship match in Joinville in Santa Catarina, on December 8, 2013. Dozens of fans fought a savage battle on the terraces at the match on Sunday, interrupting play for more than one hour and leaving at least three people reportedly in serious condition. (Photo by Carlos Moraes/Agência O DIA)

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)

Two three-month-old female white Bengal tiger cubs play with a zoo keeper in their enclosure at the Buenos Aires' Zoo, in Argentina, on April 17, 2014. Captive white Bengal tiger Cloe, gave birth to three cubs – two females and one male – on January 14, 2014. (Photo by Juan Mabromata/AFP Photo)

In this photograph taken on April 16, 2014, a veterinary staff member of the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme center conducts medical examinations on a 14-year-old male orangutan found with air gun metal pellets embedded in his body in Sibolangit district in northern Sumatra island. (Photo by Sutanta Aditya/AFP Photo)

Migrants scramble aboard a train at the station in Beli Manastir, Croatia September 18, 2015. Migrant numbers in Europe will build up in coming days and their flows may fragment further into new routes, the U.N. refugee agency said on Friday, urging the European Union to grasp a last chance to resolve the refugee crisis next week. (Photo by Laszlo Balogh/Reuters)

Women look at a collapsed building caused by earthquakes, in Bhaktapur, Nepal, May 18, 2015. Nepal is facing billions in reconstruction costs with almost 745,600 buildings and homes damaged or destroyed, including at least 87,700 in the capital, according to Nepal's emergency authority. (Photo by Ahmad Masood/Reuters)