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)

Chrisitan pilgrims carry wooden crosses along the Via Dolorosa during the Good Friday procession on April 22, 2011 in Jerusalem, Israel. Thousands of Christians around the world will today mark Good Fiday when they commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. In Jerusalem Christian pilgrims took part in processions along the route that Jesus is believed to have taken in his last days as he carried the cross. (Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

An Israeli jail authority officer escorts a prison van containing Palestinian prisoners as it enters Hasharon jail on October 16, 2011 in Tel Mond, Israel. IDF soldier Gilad Shalit is to be freed from 5 years of captivity in Gaza in an exchange deal which will see the release of 477 Palestinian prisoners in an initial deal with another 550 to freed after the return of Shalit. (Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

Rev. Yeon Ah Lee Moon of the Sanctuary Church holds a gold AR-15 during a ceremony to rededicate marriages at the World Peace and Unification Sanctuary in Newfoundland, Pennsylvania, USA, 28 February 2018. The church, a breakaway from the Unification Church, believes guns are a symbol of the “rod of iron” referenced in the Book of Revelations. (Photo by Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA/EFE)

A young illustrator has imagined a world where our most iconic world leaders wouldnt look out of place grabbing a low fat chai latte and a wheat free bagel from an edgy Dalston cafe. In a new series called Hipstory Amti Shimoni, a designer and illustrator from Israel has created a collection of pictures imagining our former global leaders as colourful, cutting edge, urban, hipsters. Here: Hardcore Punk Vladimir Lenin. (Photo by Amti Shimoni/Caters News)

In this Friday, February 27, 2015 photo, an Israeli high-school senior preparing to join the Israeli military later this year participates in a privately run training camp for military combat fitness near Yakum, central Israel. With a mandatory three-year military service looming after graduation, teenage boys, and increasingly girls too, are gearing up for the draft, getting into shape and trying to improve their chances of acceptance into elite combat units. (Photo by Oded Balilty/AP Photo)

Runners wearing full solid-coloured bodysuits take part in a marathon in Tel Aviv, Israel February 26, 2016. Tens of thousands took part in the event, which saw streets closed off from Rokach Boulevard in the north to Jaffa’s Jerusalem Boulevard in the south. Other than the main 42-kilometer (26-mile) run, the day’s events also included a half-marathon route, several shorter circuits, a handcycle race for the handicapped and a mini-marathon for kids of a single kilometer (0.6 miles). (Photo by Amir Cohen/Reuters)

People wait on a taxi line near Madison Square Garden, Wednesday, September 23, 2015, as a 225-foot-tall hand-painted billboard of Pope Francis stands out at Eighth Avenue in New York. The billboard, designed by Israel Ochoa of DeSales Media, including a photo by photographer Giulio Napolitano, marks the arrival of the pope Thursday. (Photo by Craig Ruttle/AP Photo)