Listed as endangered on the IUCN red list of threatened species, a humphead wrasse, or Napoleon fish, swims in an aquarium during an event in Tokyo's shopping district of Ginza on August 5, 2019. (Photo by Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP Photo)

People look at a skeleton couple kissing installation dubbed “Till Death Do Us Part” during a Valentine's Day event in Bucharest, Romania, Tuesday, February 13, 2024. (Photo by Vadim Ghirda/AP 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 image released on December 09, English model Leomie Anderson and English model and actress Jourdan Dunn attend the 2020 MOBO Awards held at Exhibition London on December 07, 2020 in London, England. The MOBO Awards will be live-streamed on YouTube at 7pm and broadcast on BBC One at 10.45pm. (Photo by Michael Tubes/MOBO Organisation/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Police officers intervene as a man attempts to hang himself during a protest to oppose the sharing of river water with a neighboring state, in Bengaluru, India on September 26, 2023. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

A boy dressed as the Star Wars character Darth Vader attends a Star Wars themed church service, at the Zion Church in Berlin, Sunday, December 20, 2015. About 500 people, some carrying light saber props or wearing Darth Vader masks, attended the service, more than twice as many as usual on a Sunday. (Photo by Markus Schreiber/AP Photo)

Philip Colbert poses in front of his artwork at The Gallery Hosu on March 31, 2025 in Seoul, South Korea. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images for Philip Colbert Studio)

A fisherman brings his catch ashore from the Deduru Oya Reservoir, where giant snakeheads have become an invasive species in Walpaluwa village, Sri Lanka, Thursday, October 30, 2025. (Photo by Eranga Jayawardena/AP Photo)