A woman searches for nails and other metal scraps from remains of burned houses that were gutted during a fire at a poor bayside village in the district of Tondo, Manila, Philippines on Friday, May 20, 2022. Investigators said about 300 families became homeless after the fire that happened Thursday night. (Photo by Aaron Favila/AP Photo)

A woman pushes a child aboard a plastic basin as they wade through floodwaters brought about by Super Typhoon Noru on September 26, 2022 in San Miguel, Bulacan province, Philippines. Super Typhoon Noru made landfall in the Philippines overnight, causing widespread flooding and leaving at least five dead. High winds and heavy rains have flattened villages and have increased the threat of landslides. (Photo by Ezra Acayan/Getty Images)

English singer-songwriter Dua Lipa early November 2022 shares “miscellaneous” photos from Japan. (Photo by dualipa/Instagram)

Pet dogs wearing sunglasses and face mask on board a tricycle are pictured in Chinatown district of Manila on January 20, 2023, ahead of the Lunar New Year of the Rabbit which falls on January 22. (Photo by Ted Aljibe/AFP Photo)

Visitors attend the balloon festival on the Eid al-Fitr holiday at Ronggolawe Stadion on April 23, 2023, in Wonosobo, Central Java, Indonesia. Javanese people fly giant hot air balloons during Eid, which has long been a tradition of the Wonosobo regency. (Photo by Garry Lotulung/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

A young Catholic waits for the start of mass at the church of Saint John the Baptist during the mud festival at Bibiclat, Nueva Ecija province, northern Philippines, Monday, June 24, 2024. (Photo by Aaron Favila/AP Photo)

Afghan girls ride a donkey along a street in Argo district at Badakhshan province on July 30, 2024. (Photo by Omer Abrar/AFP 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)