A woman stands in front of graffiti depicting Venezuela's late former President Hugo Chavez, right, and revolutionary hero Simon Bolivar, in downtown Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, October 25, 2017. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP 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)

Model Kendall Jenner poses on the red carpet as she arrives for the screening of the film “Mal de pierres” (From the Land of the Moon) in competition at the 69th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, May 15, 2016. (Photo by Yves Herman/Reuters)

His own space suit, with oxygen tank, doesn't make Barney the monkey any happier as he and actor Adam West view the situation in their space capsule in Hollywood on January 24, 1964. Barney, a South American woolly monkey, is blasted into space with West, as an astronaut, in a new movie, “Robinson Crusoe on Mars”. (Photo by AP Photo)

A woman walks past graffiti on a wall in the Williamsburg neighborhood of the borough of Brooklyn, in New York, September 16, 2014. The picture was taken through car window with raindrops. (Photo by Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)

Seven month old Christine Joy shares her pram with two 5 week old Gunsure Golden Cherry's cocker spaniel pups from Gunsure Kennels in Ashford, Middlesex. 22nd May 1953. (Photo by Fred Morley/Fox Photos)

Models showcase Valentine's Day underwear celebrating the results of a recent survey revealing that men find the lingerie, boxer shorts and vests, the biggest turn on ahead of February 14 Valentine celebrations, at Waterloo on February 2, 2006 in London, England. (Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)

A girl carries on her head a pile of dried shrubs she gathered for cooking and heating, in Kabul, Afghanistan November 18, 2015. (Photo by Omar Sobhani/Reuters)