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)

Boeing B-29 (#10) from the 24th Bomb Squadron, 6th Bomb Group after an emergency landing at Iwo Jima on April 24,1945. (Photo by U.S. Air Force)

Medical workers wearing protective gear to protect against coronavirus infection, carry a patient at infectious diseases hospital where patients with coronavirus are treated in St.Petersburg, Russia, Wednesday, June 3, 2020. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)

A child stops by a large print at a photographic memorial for those killed in the confrontation between Ukraine's military and the pro-Russia separatist forces in Sievierodonetsk, Luhansk region, eastern Ukraine, Wednesday, February 23, 2022. Ukraine urged its citizens to leave Russia, and Europe braced for further confrontation Wednesday after tensions escalated dramatically when Russia's leader received authorization to use military force outside his country and the West responded with a raft of sanctions. (Photo by Vadim Ghirda/AP Photo)

A dog wearing face mask is seen on a street as the country is hit by an outbreak of the novel coronavirus, in Shanghai, China on March 2, 2020. (Photo by Aly Song/Reuters)

American model Kendall Jenner hides from the camera as she arrives with Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny to Richie Akiva's “The After” party hosted by Diddy and Doja Cat at The Box, presented by Armand de Brignac and CIROC Vodka on May 1, 2023. (Photo by Rommel Demano/BFA.com)

An Ambassador car, licensed as taxi rolls past other vehicles through a busy road in Kolkata, india, Monday, May 26, 2014. India's oldest car factory has abruptly suspended production of the hulking Ambassador sedan that has a nearly seven-decade history as the car of the Indian elite. (Photo by Bikas Das/AP Photo)

A Rohingya refugee woman is helped from a boat as she arrives exhausted on the Bangladesh side of the Naf River at Shah Porir Dwip after fleeing her village in Myanmar, on October 1, 2017 in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)