A masked tourist poses for a souvenir photo next to a graffiti titled “Mobile World Virus” depicting “La Gioconda”, aka Mona Lisa, with a mobile phone and a medical mask, by urban artist TVBoy, close to the Sant Jaume square in Barcelona, Spain, 09 March 2020. Barcelona's Deputy Mayor and two town councillors are in quarantine after they were in contact with a City Hall's worker who was tested positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus. (Photo by Quique Garcia/EPA/EFE)

Leopard seal chasing a Gentoo penguin in Antarctica. This image wins the gold prize in the behaviour – mammals category, and the grand prize of World Nature Photographer of the Year. (Photo by Amos Nachoum/World Nature Photography Awards)

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)

A soldier helps another with her ear protection at the Terningmoen Camp in Elverum, Norway on March 23, 2017. Soldiers demonstrate their skills and tactics during a contract drill as they train to become part of the world's first all-female special forces unit, the Jegertroppen or “hunter troops”. (Photo by Carolina Reid/NBC News)

Sport category, winner: Yuan Peng. Liu Bingqing and Liu Yujie are twin sisters who have studied and trained in gymnastics since their early childhood in Jining, China. (Photo by Yuan Peng/Sony World Photography Awards)

Sumo wrestler Kaiho eats a “chanko” meal in Nagoya, Japan on July 18, 2017. After ending practice at 10:30 a.m., the wrestlers mingle with fans, sign autographs and pose for photos before the first of their two daily meals. (Photo by Issei Kato/Reuters)

An artist airbrushes a model during the “World Bodypainting Festival 2017” in Klagenfurt, Austria on July 28, 2017. (Photo by Leonhard Foeger/Reuters)

A bystander walks past a fresco by street artist Seth depicting a girl with a Ukrainian flag walking on tanks in Paris on March 01, 2022. (Photo by Joel Saget/AFP Photo)