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)

This image released by Paramount Pictures shows Taron Egerton as Elton John in a scene from “Rocketman”. (Photo by David Appleby/Paramount Pictures via AP Photo)

Here Goes River captures Japanese photographer Aya Fujioka’s home town of Hiroshima in 2017. The award-winning series documents the quiet, everyday spaces of the city – mundane, almost incidental scenes that are suffused with the invisible weight of the past. (Photo by Aya Fujioka)

Katie Austin (L) and Denise Austin attend the 2019 ESPY Awards at Microsoft Theater on July 10, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Chelsea Lauren/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

(L–R) Unknown, Alan Jones, Chrissie Hynde, Vivienne Westwood and punk fashion icon Jordan at Kings Road fashion shop «Sеx» run by Westwood and Malcolm McLaren in London, United Kingdom, 1976. (Photo by David Dagley/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Members of La Legion, an elite unit of the Spanish Army, including a goat they use as a pet wait for the start of a military parade as they celebrate a holiday known as “Dia de la Hispanidad” or Hispanic Day in Madrid, Wednesday, October 12, 2016. (Photo by Daniel Ochoa de Olza/AP Photo)

Medical staff react outside Queen Elizabeth Hospital during the Clap for our Carers campaign in support of the NHS, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in Birmingham, Britain, April 23, 2020. (Photo by Carl Recine/Reuters)

A sommelier serves the glass with 2021 Beaujolais Nouveau wine of a young woman bathing in a red colored hot water bath, on the day of the Beaujolais Nouveau official release, at Hakone Kowakien Yunessun hot spring resort in Hakone, Japan, 18 November 2021. Japan is a major market for the Beaujolais Nouveau. However, the country's total Beaujolais Nouveau imports are expected to fall by 20 per cent from 2019 to around 3,6 million bottles, amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by Franck Robichon/EPA/EFE)