Pedestrians walk past an art installation by French street artist James Colomina called the “The Briefcase” (bottom) at Shibuya Crossing in the Shibuya district of central Tokyo on May 20, 2025. The display shows a red briefcase – a symbol of work and conformity – with arms, legs and a tie poking out on the ground to illustrate a “salaryman” who has lost his identity, swallowed by his daily routine. (Photo by Richard A. Brooks/AFP 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)

“The Naval and Military Club is a gentlemen's club in London, England. It was founded in 1862 because the three then existing military clubs in London – the United Service, the Junior United Service and the Army and Navy – were all full. The membership was long restricted to military officers. This is no longer the case, but it still has a predominantly military and ex-military membership”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Members of the prestigious “In and Out Club”, one of the oldest and most exclusive clubs in London, march around St. James's Square during the club's 150th birthday celebration on March 1, 2012 in London, England. Patrons of the private members club, whose official title is the Naval and Military Club, gathered in St. James's Square in Central London before marching with the Band of the Royal Logistics Corps to be greeted by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, and retiring for lunch inside the club. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

Dear England, a play by James Graham about the former England football manager Gareth Southgate, will return to the National Theatre in March 2025. The Olivier award-winning production will be staged at the Olivier theatre in London until May 24, followed by a four-week run at the Lowry in Manchester. (Photo by Marc Brenner)

Chaps, flaneurs, dandies and dandizettes in their stylish outfits once again meet beside the statue of Beau Brummell on Jermyn Street for a relaxed stroll around St James', Piccadilly Arcade to Piccadilly Circus and Soho in London on May 11, 2025. The annual fun walk is organised by “The Chap” magazine. (Photo by Alamy Live News)

English actress Lily James attends the “What's Love Got To Do With It?” UK Premiere at Odeon Luxe Leicester Square on February 13, 2023 in London, England. (Photo by Zak Hussein/Splash News and Pictures)

Star Wars collector James Burns, 44, poses for a photograph with some of his collection in London December 2, 2015. He said “I've met so many wonderful people, all over the world. It's a wonderful community of likeminded people with an interest in Star Wars. There's nothing else like it”. (Photo by Paul Hackett/Reuters)

A badly-weathered composition doll, made from compressed wood chip, has its flakey paint cut off before being repaired and repainted by Gail Grainger, a 14-year veteran doll repairer at Sydney's Doll Hospital, August 19, 2014. Opened in 1913, Sydney's Doll Hospital has worked on millions of dolls, teddy bears and other toys. Behind a toy shop on a busy suburban street in Sydney's south, “doll surgeons” transplant fingers, toes and heads, and repair broken eye sockets in dolls who were the victim of a childhood tantrum or sibling rivalry, sometimes decades ago. (Photo by Jason Reed/Reuters)