Overall, from 1953 to 1967, 34th Squadron flew 838 missions, 148 Black Bat crew members went down with 15 aircraft. A few were captured after being shot down and later released in Hong Kong. The squadron's last operational mission was flown in May 1969. This was the epic operation Heavy Tea. After the failure of the Black Cat Squadron to plant operating sensor pods near the Lop Nur Nuclear Weapons Test Base, the CIA developed a plan to deploy two battery-powered sensor pallets near the base. To deploy the pallets, a Black Bat crew was trained in the US to fly the Lockheed C-130 Hercules. The crew of 12, led by Col Sun Pei Zhen, took off from Takhli Royal Thai Air Force Base in an unmarked US Air Force C-130E on 17 May. Flying for six and a half hours at low altitude in the dark, they arriv