People take pictures of the sunset in Berlin October 27, 2014. (Photo by Hannibal Hanschke/Reuters)

A Santa Claus puppet holding a Christmas tree is pictured against the sun in Berlin November 23, 2014. (Photo by Hannibal Hanschke/Reuters)

Hungarian wrestlers fight during the Hungarian wrestling Championship in Budapest November 29, 2014. (Photo by Laszlo Balogh/Reuters)

Steam emerges from a cooling tower of the nuclear power plant Leibstadt near Leibstadt, Switzerland, November 18, 2014. (Photo by Arnd Wiegmann/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)

A surfer drops in on a large wave at Praia do Norte, in Nazare December 11, 2014. Praia do Norte beach has gained popularity with big wave surfers since Hawaiian surfer Garrett McNamara broke a world record for the largest wave surfed here in 2011. (Photo by Rafael Marchante/Reuters)

A woman rolls a marijuana cigarette during the first “Expo Cannabis” fair in Montevideo December 14, 2014. Expo Cannabis offers conferences about different topics such as the medicinal use of cannabis and cultivation techniques as well as displaying hemp goods, cannabis cultivation items and seeds. (Photo by Andres Stapff/Reuters)