halved its height when it came out over level land. Farmers out tending crops after dark paid it no mind as it flew over. The infiltrators also had the four enemy MiG-21s at Vinh Airfield as a concern. Having secretively flown virtually the entire width of Vietnam, the helicopter dropped in on its target. The two Lao commandos dropped the last few feet from the aircraft. The helicopter then flew off to a pre-selected tree on a 340-meter peak and dropped a mesh web supporting a camouflaged solar-powered communications relay over its crown. From there, the Hughes 500P moved again and settled into a dry streambed for a 20-minute wait while the commandos set up the wiretap. The hidey-hole turned near disastrous. A rock knifed the FLIR's liquid nitrogen tank; the resulting leak disabled the FLIR. At the same time, a radar detector began sounding its alarm. The pilot turned off the warning and settled in to wait for 20 minutes while the commandos worked. The enemy MiGs did not show up. When the commandos deplaned, they scrambled into a bomb crater left by the previous "accidental" air raid until they were sure they were alone. From there they moved to their target pole, only to discover it was concrete instead of wood, rendering their climbing spikes useless. Undaunted, they shimmied up the pole and placed the wiretap. Their return to the helicopter landing zone, and the 500P's subsequent return to PS-44 were uneventful. Results The day after the tap was emplaced, the Operation Linebacker II bombing campaign began. From 7 December 1972, right through the Paris Peace Talk negotiations, and up until May 1973, the tap fed information back to the Americans. Kissinger deemed it "excellent intelligence", even though he "never questioned where it came from." In early May 1973, the Vinh wiretap went silent. Damage to the relay was suspected. There were seven unsuccessful attempts to replace the relay between 8 May and 16 June 1973, though not by the Hughes 500P. The CIA's use of the black helicopter from Area 51 to eavesdrop on the Paris Peace Talk discussions and other intelligence had ended. "The Quiet One" was quietly removed from its spy mission. Upon its return to the U.S., it was stripped of most of its special features before disposition. However, its legacy lives on in such features as its modified main rotors and scissor-type rear