Kyrgyz Communist supporters gather in front of the Soviet Union founder Vladimir Lenin monument in Bishkek on November 7, 2017, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of The Bolshevik Revolution. (Photo by Vyacheslav Oseledko/AFP Photo)

An unidentified elderly woman, who was knocked over during the melee after a shot was fired in the direction of President Ford, is comforted by a passerby in San Francisco, September 23, 1975. (Photo by AP Photo)

A German special anti-tank gun is ready to fire during the army maneuvers in Silesia, Poland, on September 22, 1928. (Photo by AP Photo)

Competitors bear more than their bikinis during a spring break bikini contest at Summers' in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA circa 1985. (Photo by Nik Wheeler/Corbis via Getty Images)

Going nowhere in a hurry, this friendly Javan Tree frog can be seen casually hopping aboard the slow-paced snail who like a lonely highway trucker is only too happy to have the company. These cute critters chew the fat until froggy reaches his destination and alights at the top of the branch. Creative Designer and amateur photographer Kurit Afsheen (34) was able to capture this special sequence while out in his back garden in Ciledug, Indonesia. (Photo by Kurit Afsheen/Media Drum World)

St Louis County police officers arrest an anti-police demonstrator in Ferguson, Missouri August 10, 2015. Dozens of protesters were arrested on Monday afternoon after blocking rush-hour traffic on Interstate 70 a few miles (km) from Ferguson, Missouri, during demonstrations over the police shooting of an unarmed black man a year ago, according to a Reuters witness. (Photo by Lucas Jackson/Reuters)

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 pile of destroyed cars of teachers sits outside Briarwood elementary school in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma May 22, 2013. Rescue workers with sniffer dogs picked through the ruins on Wednesday to ensure no survivors remained buried after a deadly tornado left thousands homeless and trying to salvage what was left of their belongings. Curvature of horizon in the photo is due to an ultra-wide angle lens. (Photo by Rick Wilking/Reuters)