A Chinese vendor wears a rooster hat as he smokes a cigarette at his souvenir stall at a fair at Temple of Earth, on the eve of Chinese New Year February 8, 2005 in Beijing, China. Chinese started February 8, to celebrate the New Year of the Rooster. (Photo by Andrew Wong/Getty Images)

This picture taken on April 12, 2017 shows men carrying bamboo through a forest near Dashan village near the city of Lin'an, Zhejiang Province. Lin'an is in a area of eastern Zhejiang province whose rich bamboo forests are estimated to supply up to two-thirds of China's bamboo shoots, plus a range of other products derived from the fast-growing plant that are produced both for domestic and overseas markets. (Photo by Johannes Eisele/AFP Photo)

A Chinese rescuer evacuates a young boy from flooded areas caused by heavy rains in Changsha city, central China's Hunan provincehangsha, capital of Hunan on July 3, 2017. (Photo by Imaginechina/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A model prepares backstage before during the Heaven Gaia collection show by Chinese designer Xiong Ying on day two of China Fashion Week A/W 2021/2022 at 751D.PARK on March 25, 2021 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Zhe Ji/Getty Images)

A bus goes through a flooded area in Jiujiang, Jiangxi Province, China, June 19, 2016. A week of torrential rain in southern China has killed dozens of people and forced relocation of tens of thousands of residents, media reported. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)

A man carries a bag on his back in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, January 26, 2016. According to traffic police, over 2.9 billion trips will be made around China during the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, which started on January 24. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

A student attending a winter military camp reacts during a training session in Ansan, south of Seoul January 3, 2013. Hundreds of students between 11 and 17 years old attend winter boot camp training courses every year. The winter courses range from 4 to 14 days at the Blue Dragon Camp run by retired marines, which also offers summer boot camp for students. (Photo by Kim Hong-Ji/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)