The moon rises on the behind the “Torchbearer” statue in Hannover, Germany, Wednesday, November 5, 2025. (Photo by Julian Stratenschulte/dpa via 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)

Foreign tourists who visited the “Boryeong Mud Festival” venue in Boryeong-si, Chungcheongnam-do on the July 19th, 2024 are having fun rolling around in a mud bath. The 27th Boryeong Mud Festival this year will be held until the 4th of next month. Last year, more than 1.6 million tourists visited the festival. (Phoot by Shin Hyeon-jong)

Celebrity Hair Stylist, Chris Appleton was walking along Sunset blvd on their way to film Selling Sunset with Chrishell Stause when Chris wasn't paying attention to the Frappacino's that he was carrying and dropped them in the middle of Sunset Blvd in West Hollywood, CA. on December 11, 2024. The looks on their faces was prices. The drinks can be seen in mid air before both hitting the ground and exploding. Clearly embarrassed, all they could do was laugh. (Photo by TheRealSPW/Backgrid USA)

“Serengeti National Park encompasses 5,700 square miles of grassy plains and woodlands near the northern border of Tanzania, and is home to more than 3,500 lions grouped into a couple dozen prides. Photographer Nick Nichols and videographer Nathan Williamson made several extended trips to the Serengeti between July 2011 and January 2013, determined to break new visual ground in their coverage of the Serengeti Lions”. Photo: Cubs of the Simba East pride: too young to kill but old enough to crave meat. Adult females, and sometimes males, do the hunting. Zebras and wildebeests rank high as chosen prey in the rainy season. (Photo by Michael Nichols/National Geographic via The Atlantic)

Vitor Martins puts forward his fist, that has the word “God” tattooed on it, in front of his Santa Claus outfit inside his house, before a performance with children in Sao Caetano do Sul's town square, near Sao Paulo, December 7, 2014. Martins has dressed as Santa Claus, working at shopping centres and various events, for fifteen years, and has 94 percent of his body covered in tattoos, with several in reference to Christmas. (Photo by Nacho Doce/Reuters)

The R.C. Bush Pilots club was started in 1981, for those who enjoy flying radio control (RC) model planes. It’s one of the largest clubs in Florida, and calls Phil Wherry Field in West Palm Beach home. Photo: Professional pilot and remote control plane enthusiast Bob Rembert prepares to start the propeller of a 1/4 scale Edge 540 remote control, gas powered plane. (Photo by Bill Ingram/The Palm Beach Post)

In this October 14, 2013 photo, ecology professor Ricardo Freitas catches a broad-snouted caiman to examine, then release back into the water channel in the affluent Recreio dos Bandeirantes suburb of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Caimans are like tanks, a very old species with a remarkable capacity for renovation that allows them to survive under extreme conditions where others couldn't, said Freitas, who runs the Instituto Jacare, or the Caiman Institute, which aims to protect the reptiles. (Photo by Felipe Dana/AP Photo)