Commuters watch after their train was blocked by leftist activists at a railway station during a nationwide general strike against the policies of the central government in Kolkata on March 28, 2022. (Photo by Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP Photo)

A family tries to cross a flooded road amid gushing water in Kolkata, India on August 17, 2019. Heavy rain continues for a second day in Kolkata, which contuinued to flood many streets all around the city. Authorities are working overtime to clear the roads. (Photo by Debarchan Chatterjee/Zuma Wire/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A young female demonstrator is arrested by police during clashes in the Causeway Bay area of Hong Kong, China on October 6, 2019. Hundreds of thousands of protesters marched through the city's streets in defiance of the new “no-mask” law, which was introduced two days ago as demonstrations roll into a 14th week. (Photo by Rick Findler/EPA/EFE/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

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)

The Sheep watch the sunset from the top of Cleeve Hill, Cheltenham, United Kingdom on June 22, 2020. (Photo by Jack Boskett/The Telegraph)

Elephants dust themselves with soil at Taigan safari park in Belogorsk, Crimea on May 4, 2021. (Photo by Alexey Pavlishak/Reuters)

Dressed in traditional make-up and costume a woman participates in the celebration for the Day of the Dead or Día de los Muertos at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles on Saturday, October 30, 2021. Day of the Dead, is a Mexican holiday where families welcome back the souls of their deceased relatives for a brief reunion that includes food, drink and celebration. (Photo by Richard Vogel/AP Photo)

Twelve-year-old Kelia Gallina of French Polynesia after surfing in Heat 1 of the Elimination Round at the Lexus Tahiti Pro on August 8, 2025 at Teahupoo, Tahiti, French Polynesia.(Photo by Brent Bielmann/World Surf League via Getty Images)