English singer and songwriter Dua Lipa performs onstage during the Dua Lipa Future Nostalgia Tour at FTX Arena on February 09, 2022 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Jason Koerner/Getty Images)

British glamour model and actress Sabrina (born Norma Ann Sykes, 1936-2016), during a press conference at Park Lane House in London on June 24, 1955. (Photo by ANL/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Aerial view of villagers drying chili peppers at a rural cooperative on August 21, 2024 in Bozhou, Anhui Province of China. (Photo by Yang Zhongqin/VCG via Getty Images)

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)

Kenny Wallace, driver of the #09 Family Farmers Toyota, spins into Justin Allgaier, driver of the #31 Brandt Chevrolet, who is lifted into the air by Reed Sorenson, driver of the #52 Means Racing Chevrolet, as Michael Annett, driver of the #43 Pilot Flying J. Ford, tries to avoid the wreckage during the NASCAR Nationwide Series DRIVE4COPD 300 at Daytona International Speedway on February 25, 2012 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by John Harrelson/Getty Images for NASCAR)

A photographer could bear-ly believe his eyes when a bear started waving at him. The friendly animal wandered to the front of his enclosure before sitting back in full view of zoo guests. He then lifts his powerful paw and excitedly waves in an almost human-like way at his new audience. The hilarious encounter was captured by keen photographer Andrey Slepnev, 31, while on a trip to Madrid Zoo, Spain on March 24, 2016. (Photo by Andrey Slepnev/Caters News)

A flood affected family moves on a banana raft past a fishing net in Morigaon district, east of Gauhati, northeastern Assam state, India, Sunday, July 31, 2016. A week of heavy rain has killed dozens of people and uprooted tens of thousands of others from their homes. Floods are an annual occurrence in Assam and many parts of India during the June-September monsoon season. (Photo by Anupam Nath/AP Photo)

A Police officer checks a man wearing a carnival costume 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. Police are also examining backpacks and bags and using metal-detecting wands before revelers are allowed into St. Mark's Square, the heart of the Venetian carnival. (Photo by Luigi Costantini/AP Photo)