A member of the South African National Defense Force (SANDF) stands on a military vehicle during a joint South African Police Services (SAPS) and SANDF patrol on day 31 of the national lockdown as a result of the ongoing coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic in Johannesburg, South Africa, 26 April 2020. The patrol was in the high density areas of Hillbrow and Yoeville where civilians are still breaking the strict lockdown rules. Those that where breaking the rules where arrested. South Africa's Stage 5 lockdown is due to end 30 April 2020 when stage 4 will be implemented. (Photo by Kim Ludbrook/EPA/EFE)

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)

An aerial view shows a sinkhole 3.5 km (2 miles) to the east of Solikamsk-2 mine in Perm region, November 20, 2014. Shares in Russia's Uralkali, the world's top potash producer, fell sharply for a second day on Wednesday after a mine accident that could reduce global supplies and push up prices of the crop nutrient worldwide. Uralkali shares have fallen 28 percent since Tuesday when it suspended work at its Solikamsk-2 mine, which accounts for a fifth of the company's output and 3.5 percent of global capacity, following an inflow of water. A sinkhole, stretching 30 by 40 metres (yards), found at an abandoned mine 3.5 km (2 miles) to the east, increased concern about the future of the mine because an inflow of water and the resulting sinkhole in 2006 forced another Uralkali operation to shut permanently. (Photo by Reuters/Press service of Uralkali company)

“Yunarmiya” (Young Army) All-Russia National Military Patriotic Social Movement Association members compete during the 7th military-patriotic game “Yunarmiya, forward!” dedicated to Victory Day at the Museum-reserve “Gorki Leninskie” in Gorki Leninskie, Russia, 29 April 2025. A total of 160 teams of Yunarmiya and military-patriotic detachments attended the games, each team consisting of seven people aged between 12 and 17 years old. The games are a continuation of the Soviet military-sports competitions for children and teenagers, “Zarnitsa” (since 1967) and “Orlyonok (Eaglet)” (since 1972). (Photo by Sergei Ilnitsky/EPA/EFE)

Santiago Eneme (second left) and his Equatorial Guinea teammates can’t watch during their last 16 penalty shoot-out with Mali, although they did go on to win at Limbe Omnisport Stadium in Limbe, Cameroon on January 26, 2022. (Photo by Thaier Al-Sudani/Reuters)

The front wheels of a tractor lift off the ground as the driver moves a heavy trailer outside Peshawar, Pakistan February 19, 2018. (Photo by Fayaz Aziz/Reuters)

Boys walk near a damaged building in the rebel held besieged city of Douma, in the eastern Damascus suburb of Ghouta, Syria December 30, 2016. (Photo by Bassam Khabieh/Reuters)

A dog stands next to the body of an elderly woman killed inside a house in Bucha, outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, April 5, 2022. (Photo by Felipe Dana/AP Photo)