A visitor poses behind the artwork “Convergence” by artist Masarrat Fatima M Sulaimani and curated by Samar Kamel at the World Art Dubai fair at the Dubai World Trade Centre in the Gulf Emirate of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 08 October 2020. Around 2,000 art pieces are displaying at the sixth edition of the World Art Dubai fair which is running from 08 to 10 October 2020. (Photo by Ali Haider/EPA/EFE)

Brad Snead walks past melting ice on the Cook Inlet beach, Saturday, March 26, 2011, in Kenai, Alaska, while looking for agates. (AP Photo/Peninsula Clarion, M. Scott Moon)

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)

Jared Leto poses with fans for a selfie during the “Clear Channel Media and Entertainment” at the 2014 Cannes Lions on June 18, 2014 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Didier Baverel/WireImage)

Singer Ariana Grande performs during the 2014 MTV Europe Music Awards at the SSE Hydro Arena in Glasgow, on November 9, 2014. (Photo by Toby Melville/Reuters)

Balinese men throw fire on each other during a sacred ritual called “Mesabatan Api” or a fire fight at a temple in Tuban, Bali, Indonesia, 9 October 2014. October 9, 2014. During the ritual Balinese Hindu men took the blazing coconut husks barehanded, swinging and throwing them each other. Balinese believe that fire can destroy evil, and the ritual is aimed to get rid of the negative forces. (Photo by Made Nagi/EPA)

Miss Brazil Julia Gama reacts after her team won the tug of war event during the Miss World sports competition at the Lee Valley sports complex in north London, November 26, 2014. Contestants from 126 countries are in London to compete in the 2014 Miss World competition. (Photo by Andrew Winning/Reuters)