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)

This photo released by the Cleveland Animal Protective League shows Lurleen, the nursing mother and Noland the puppy snuggling up Wednesday, June 19, 2013, in Cleveland. Lurleen already is caring for four newborn kittens and now is nursing the orphaned week-old pit bull puppy in Cleveland. (Photo by AP Photo/Cleveland Animal Protective League)

Sinabung mount spews ash to the air during an eruption near from Karo, North Sumatra on January 7, 2014. An Indonesian volcano that has erupted relentlessly for months shot volcanic ash into the air 30 times on January 4, forcing further evacuations with more than 20,000 people now displaced, an official said. (Photo by Sutanta Aditya/AFP Photo)

Officers react at their graduation ceremony during Iraqi Army Day anniversary celebration in Baghdad January 6, 2015. Iraqi Defence Minister Khaled al-Obeidi said on Tuesday that the Iraqi military has started rebuilding after its near total collapse last summer but that the effort is still in its initial phase. (Photo by Ahmad Mousa/Reuters)

An abandoned motorboat is seen on the bank of a bay near Krabozavodskoye settlement on the Island of Shikotan, one of four islands known as the Southern Kuriles in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan, December 19, 2016. (Photo by Yuri Maltsev/Reuters)

A member of the Tinstix of Dynamite aerobatics team flies in front of a wall of fire during the Australian International Airshow in Melbourne on March 5, 2017. The annual event sees 180,000 visitors over the 3-day public event held at the Avalon Airfield some 80kms south-west of Melbourne. (Photo by Mal Fairclough/AFP Photo)

Nutrias venture near the camera at the river Nidda in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 15 June 2017. The rabbit sized animals are often confused with biebers by amateurs. (Photo by Boris Roessler/DPA)

Armed female members of the militant Palestinian group Islamic Jihad carry Kalashnikov assault rifles as they take part in a rally to protest against US President Donald Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in Gaza City on December 11, 2017. (Photo by Mohammed Abed/AFP Photo)