A woman cries while sitting on a road amid the destroyed city of Natori, Miyagi Prefecture in northern Japan March 13, 2011, after a massive earthquake and tsunami. Five years on from the tsunami that triggered meltdowns at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant, the page is anything but turned. A magnitude 9 earthquake and towering tsunami on March 11, 2011 killed nearly 16,000 people along Japan's northeastern coast and left more than 2,500 missing. The 10-metre (33-foot) tsunami swept away everything in its path, including houses, ships, cars and farm buildings. (Photo by Asahi Shimbun/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)

Alee Harrison, 13, wears the tv series “Doctor Who” on her legs as she works on a painting for Operation Blue Pride. (Photo by Greg Lovett/The Palm Beach Post)

A man wearing a protective mask poses for a picture with a giant Jade Rabbit installation ahead of celebrations for the Mid-Autumn Festival, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on September 18, 2020. (Photo by Lim Huey Teng/Reuters)

An Iranian woman wearing a face mask walks on a street in Tehran, Iran, 19 October 2020. According to the Iranian Health ministry, Iran reported its highest daily COVID-19 death toll of 337 and 4,251 new infections in past 24 hours as it appears that Iran is in a third wave of COVID-19 outbreak. (Photo by Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA/EFE)

A member of Extinction Rebellion Red Rebel Brigade protests against fracking gas outside Government Buildings in Dublin, Ireland on March 23, 2021. (Photo by Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters)

Two helicopters are seen following a collision near Seaworld, on the Gold Coast, Australia, 02 January 2023. Four people are dead and another 13 injured after two helicopters collided before one crashed into the Broadwater on the Gold Coast. (Photo by Dave Hunt/EPA/EFE/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Dancers of the Saint Balthazar Kamba Kua traditional group perform in honour of Saint Balthazar, one of the Three Wise Men, during the Afro-Paraguay festival of Kamba Kua, in Fernando de la Mora, Paraguay, on January 6, 2024. The annual festival is a tradition that keeps Paraguay's Afro-descendants connected with their African roots through ancestral dance, drumming and customs. (Photo by Norberto Duarte/AFP Photo)