Female sea lion “Sarasa” holds a hose with her mouse to help a trainer clean her room at the Shinagawa Aqua Stadium aquarium in Tokyo on December 30, 2014. The aquarium is carrying out year-end general cleaning of their facilities. (Photo by Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP Photo)

Heidi Klum attends the Heidi Klum's 16th Annual Halloween Party sponsored by GSN's Hellevator And SVEDKA Vodka At LAVO New York on October 31, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images for Heidi Klum)

The Sugar Plum Fairy, Katherine Free, left, dances with the dog, Pig, during the Birmingham's Ballet “Mutt-cracker”, a rendition of the famous ballet “The Nutcracker”, in Birmingham, Alabama, December 8, 2016. (Photo by Brynn Anderson/AP Photo)

Chinese models with animal-themed body paintings pose during a campaign for animal protection at Sanya Color Zoo in Sanya city, south China's Hainan province, 10 January 2016. The girls wearing strapless bras and short pants only were colored with animal-themed paintings such as zebra, cheetah, tiger and peacock. They paraded throughout the newly-opened Sanya Color Zoo and met visitors to take pictures, causing envies from netizens living in north China who are suffering chills. (Photo by Imaginechina/Splash News)

China Airlines stewardess Wang Wen Hwang leaps from the burning China Airlines plane after assisting the passengers to safety February 27, 1980. Miss Wang saved most of the lives of the passengers despite her injuries. She was the last to leave the planes. (Photo by 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)

Models prepare backstage before a presentation as part of Fashion Weekend Plus Size Summer 2015 collection show in Sao Paulo, July 25, 2015. (Photo by Nacho Doce/Reuters)

Ireland's Philip Mulpeter, left, is kicked by Brazilian Vitor Nobrega during their welterweight mixed martial arts bout of International Pro Combat at the Estoril Casino in Estoril, near Lisbon, Portugal, Monday, January 26, 2015. Nobrega defeated Mulpeter. (Photo by Francisco Seco/AP Photo)