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 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)

In this July 29, 2021 file photo, the pillars of the massive Rosario-Victoria Bridge are exposed during a drought affecting the Parana River near Rosario, Argentina. At the port city of Santa Fe the river registered a level of 22 centimeters, the lowest in 50 years. (Photo by Victor Caivano/AP Photo/File)

Irish television personality, model, and social media influencer Maura Higgins looked unrecognisable as she transformed into Pamela Anderson for Halloween on October 30, 2021. The 30-year-old star looked glam in a blonde curly hair as she channeled the Baywatch babe for an Ann Summers bash last night. (Photo by Shutterstock/Splash News)

A woman watches a Mariachi band play aboard a float during the Day of the Dead River parade on October 29, 2021 in San Antonio, Texas. People gathered in San Antonio to celebrate, commemorate, and remember departed loved ones for this year's Día de los Muertos. This year's celebration is newly returned after in-person gatherings and festivities were canceled last year due to COVID-19. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

An Iranian girl wearing a costume inspired in the fictional folklore character Hajji Firuz, dances in Tehran on March 17, 2021 as Iranians prepare to celebrate Noruz, the Iranian New Year. Noruz, “new day” in Persian, is the New Year festivity celebrated in Iran as well as in Afghanistan and Kurdish regions in several countries. It begins with the spring equinox and symbolises rebirth. (Photo by Atta Kenare/AFP Photo)

Luciana Benetti, 16, feeds her pet pig Chanchi, given to her for a birthday present the previous year in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Saturday, September 4, 2021. As the new coronavirus began to circulate last year, Benetti found her plans for a big traditional 15th birthday party scrapped. In its place, her parents gave her a pig. (Photo by Natacha Pisarenko/AP Photo)

South Korean environmentalists participates in a rally held to commemorate the Fukushima nuclear disaster on the eve of the one year anniversary of Japan's earthquake and tsunami on March 10, 2012 in Seoul, South Korea. Currently four nuclear power plants are in operation in South Korea while the government plans to increase the number of reactors to 32 by the year 2021. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)