Models walk the runway for Sergio Hudson during New York Fashion Week: The Shows at Spring Studios on February 13, 2022 in New York City. (Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images for NYFW: The Shows)

English actress Michelle Keegan at “The Jonathan Ross Show” TV show, Series 18, Episode 7 in London, United Kingdom on December 4, 2021. (Photo by Brian J. Ritchie/Hotsauce/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

American singer-songwriter Olivia Rodrigo shows off her excitement ahead of her San Diego show in the second decade of May 2022. (Photo by oliviarodrigo/Instagram)

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 Fiat 500c is unveiled at the New York International Auto Show April 21, 2011 in New York City. The New York Auto Show is one of the largest auto shows in the country. (Photo by Ramin Talaie/Getty Images)

A model presents a creation at the Lingerie Show-Forum 2016 international lingerie, swimwear, homewear and hosiery trade show in Moscow, Russia, February 24, 2016. (Photo by Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters)

A model takes part in an exhibition, a part of Lingerie Show-Forum 2016 international lingerie, swimwear, homewear and hosiery trade show in Moscow, Russia, February 26, 2016. (Photo by Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters)

A performer from Cirque du Soleil's show “Quidam” practices backstage before a show at the MEO Arena in Lisbon December 18, 2014. (Photo by Rafael Marchante/Reuters)