A Donald Trump impersonator with a bikini clad model stops at a hot dog vendor near Trump Tower on October 25, 2016 in New York, as part of a performance art piece by British artist Alison Jackson. The event is to promote Jackson's new show, “Private”, in New York, which features staged photographs portraying the private lives of public individuals. (Photo by Timothy A. Clary/AFP Photo)

Two carnival revellers masquerade as Leonardo da Vinci's painting “Mona Lisa” pose in St. Mark's Square in Venice, Italy, Sunday, January 31, 2016. Carnival-goers in Venice are being asked by police to momentarily lift their masks as part of new anti-terrorism measures for the annual festivities. (Photo by Domenico Stinellis/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)

Rickshaw drivers wade through a flooded road after heavy rains swept through Guwahati, in the northeastern Indian state of Assam, on June 26, 2014. Seven people have been killed there in flash floods, landslides and heavy rainfall, local media reported Friday. (Photo by Utpal Baruah/Reuters)

The BADGER shot was a 23 kiloton nuclear bomb. Over 2,000 US soldiers were within 3.7 kilometers of the explosion. (Photo by Alamy Stock Photo)

A hot air balloon in the likeness of Yoda from Star Wars prepares for liftoff at the 21st Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Festival at the former Clark US Air Force base in Pampanga Province, Philippines on February 9, 2017. (Photo by Xinhua News Agency/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

South African surfer Andy Marr rides a wave at Dungeons offshore reef in the Atlantic Ocean outside Cape Town, South Africa, 01 September 2016. The big wave surfing season is at its peak with winter swells driven by storms in the South Atlantic breaking on the Cape's outer reefs providing good conditions. Big wave surfers are competing in the 2016 Striped Horse Challenge and Rebel Sessions big wave competitons symultaneously throughout the season. (Photo by Nic Bothma/EPA)

A woman, with her face covered with colored powders, dances during the Holi Festival of Colors in Lisbon, Sunday, September 15 2013. The festival, which is mainly celebrated during the Hindu spring festival Holi in some regions of India and Nepal, has become popular among people in other communities. (Photo by Francisco Seco/AP Photo)