--- description: A searing portrait of young men fighting for their lives in Vietnam in 1965, when America was ramping up involvement in Southeast Asia. title: 'One Ride With Yankee Papa 13': A Classic Photo Essay From Vietnam image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7e5fb96f6c4e1e33/698845f6cd6848783209ed30/09_72632-01-013-30b11.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Sudden Death in Vietnam: 'One Ride With Yankee Papa 13' by [Ben Cosgrove](/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 12, 2014 3:18 PM CUT  Lance Cpl. James C. Farley, helicopter crew chief, Vietnam, 1965. Lance Cpl. James C. Farley, helicopter crew chief, Vietnam, 1965.Larry Burrows—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 12, 2014 3:18 PM CUT In the spring of 1965, within weeks of 3,500 American Marines arriving in [Vietnam](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam%5FWar "undefined"), 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. Over the decades, of course, LIFE published dozens of photo essays by some of the 20th century’s greatest photographers. Very few of those essays, however, managed to combine raw intensity and technical brilliance to such powerful effect as “One Ride With Yankee Papa 13″—universally regarded as one of the greatest photographic documents to emerge from the war in Vietnam.  LIFE photographer Larry Burrows attaching cameras to helicopter Yankee Papa 13 prior to a mission during the Vietnam War. Larry Burrows—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images Here, LIFE.com presents Burrows’ seminal photo essay in its entirety: all of the photos that appeared in LIFE are here. (Left: In a picture from the article, Burrows mounts a camera to a special rig attached to an M-60 machine gun in helicopter YP13 — a.k.a., “Yankee Papa 13.” At the end of this gallery, there are three previously unpublished photographs from Burrows’ 1965 assignment.\] Burrows, LIFE informed its readers, “had been covering the war in Vietnam since 1962 and had flown on scores of helicopter combat missions. On this day he would be riding in \[21-year-old crew chief James\] Farley’s machine—and both were wondering whether the mission would be a no-contact milk run or whether, as had been increasingly the case in recent weeks, the Vietcong would be ready and waiting with .30-caliber machine guns. In a very few minutes Farley and Burrows had their answer.” The following paragraphs—lifted directly from LIFE—illustrate the vivid, visceral writing that accompanied Burrows’ astonishing images, including Burrows’ own words, transcribed from an audio recording made shortly after the 1965 mission: --- > “” --- --- > “” --- --- > “” --- --- > “” --- In his searing, deeply sympathetic portrait of young men fighting for their lives at the very moment America is ramping up its involvement in Southeast Asia, Larry Burrows’ work anticipates the scope and the dire, lethal arc of the entire war in Vietnam. Six years after “Yankee Papa 13” ran in LIFE, Burrows was killed, along with three other journalists—Henri Huet, Kent Potter and Keisaburo Shimamoto—when a helicopter in which they were flying was shot down over Laos in February, 1971\. He was 44 years old. --- _Ben Cosgrove is the Editor of LIFE.com_ ---  A mortally wounded comrade at his feet, Lance Cpl. James C. Farley, helicopter crew chief, yells to his pilot after a firefight in Vietnam, 1965. Larry Burrows—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Yankee Papa 13 crew chief James Farley carries M-60 machine guns to the helicopter. Larry Burrows—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  United Sates Marines Helicopter Squadron huddled at Da Nang in 1963 for the final briefing on a March 31, 1965, mission: to airlift a battalion of Vietnamese infantry to an isolated area about 20 miles away. Larry Burrows—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  On the day before the mission chronicled in Burrows' photo essay, Farley, 21 years old, goes on liberty in Da Nang with his gunner, 20-year-old Pfc. Wayne Hoilien. Larry Burrows—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  James Farley takes a fancy to a bush hat and models it in the street, Da Nang, March 1961. Larry Burrows—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  "Daybreak found them on the flight line," LIFE reported. "Farley's last-minute checks were painstaking. At last everything was shipshape." Larry Burrows—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Inside Yankee Papa 13, one of 17 copters making up the mission, with the pilot and co-pilot buckled in at the controls, gunner Hoilien fits an ammo belt into his M-60 machine gun. Larry Burrows—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Lance Cpl. James C. Farley, helicopter crew chief, Vietnam, 1965. Larry Burrows—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Lance Cpl. James C. Farley, helicopter crew chief, Vietnam, 1965. Larry Burrows—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Yankee Papa 13 touches down and Farley holds his fire as South Vietnamese soldiers scramble past his machine gun to join their comrades. Larry Burrows—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  The view from inside Marine helicopter Yankee Papa 13, Vietnam, March 1965. Larry Burrows—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. "From the downed YP3 in the background, the wounded gunner, Sergeant Owens, races to Yankee Papa 13, where Farley waits in the doorway." Larry Burrows—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. "In the cockpit of YP3 we could see the pilot slumped over the controls," Burrows recalled shortly after the mission, his words transcribed from an audio recording and published alongside his own pictures in LIFE. " Larry Burrows—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. "Farley switched off YP3's engine," Burrows said. "I was kneeling on the ground alongside the ship for cover against the V.C. fire. Farley hastily examined the pilot. Through the blood around his face and throat, Farley could see a bullet hole in the neck. That, plus the fact the man had not moved at all, led him to believe the pilot was dead." Larry Burrows—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. "Farley, unable to leave his gun position until YP13 is out of enemy range, stares in shock at YP3's co-pilot, Lieutenant Magel, on the floor." Larry Burrows—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. "Farley opens a first-aid kit to apply to Magel's wound as Hoilien watches Owens, the wounded gunner (with dark glasses), slumped in the rear." Larry Burrows—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. "The other wounded man, Sgt. Billie Owens, his left shoulder smashed by a bullet, lay in shock against the bulkhead," Burrows said. "He was watching, but his sunglasses hid any expression his eyes might have shown." Larry Burrows—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Exhausted by the strain, Farley stands over Magel's body while Hoilien (back to camera) tries to comfort Owens. Larry Burrows—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  "Suddenly," Burrows remembered, "at the doorway of the chopper, Farley began cursing. Then he broke into tears, first trying to cover his face from the others and then not caring who saw him." Larry Burrows—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Back at Da Nang, wounded Sergeant Owens is eased out of the copter by Farley and a fellow Marine. Larry Burrows—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Farley talks to his own pilot, Captain Vogel, about the pilot who had to be left behind in YP3\. "If we had stayed another 10 seconds under those V.C. machine guns," Vogel said, "you or us would never have got out of there." Larry Burrows—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Farley and Hoilien, dead tired, linger beside their helicopter and continue to talk over the mission. Larry Burrows—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  In a supply shack, hands covering his face, an exhausted, worn James Farley gives way to grief. Larry Burrows—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images   Not published in LIFE. A Larry Burrows photograph from Vietnam, March, 1965, not published in the original "Yankee Papa 13" LIFE photo essay. Larry Burrows—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. A Larry Burrows photograph from Vietnam, March, 1965, not published in the original "Yankee Papa 13" LIFE photo essay. Larry Burrows—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. A Larry Burrows photograph from Vietnam, March, 1965, not published in the original "Yankee Papa 13" LIFE photo essay. 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