The first QU-22B pilots were trained on the YQU-22A by instructors who had flown the YQU-22A in Southeast Asia and had returned in the fall of 1969 to set up a training program at Duke Field, Florida.

The last QU-22 operational mission in SEA was flown in September of 1972. After use in military service, many of these aircraft were placed in the civilian market, with a large portion going to training programs in Community Colleges.

In March of 1967, Harry Duchene, Roy Denning, and Lou Hagler submitted and won a non-competitive contract with the USAF to put seven drone aircraft (YQU-22A) into the Southeast Asia theater of operations as rapidly as possible. Denning headed up the program, Hagler supervised the field operation and Duchene was the project engingeer. The first examples arrived in SEA during March 1969.

These first airframes were modifications of the Beech 33/35 ("Debonair"/"Bonanza"). The aircraft had extended wings with additional fuel tanks at the tips and was powered by one turbocharged Continental IO-520B engine, with a reduction gearbox which reduced propeller RPM for quieter operation.

After acquisition from Beech, the aircraft were delivered to the Univac division of Sperry Rand for the installation of mission equipment. The aircraft was fitted with avionics to receive signals from acoustic and seismic sensors air-dropped along the HCMT. The information was then relayed either to an orbiting EC-121R or to the Igloo White facilities at the Nakhon Phanom Royal Thai Air Force Base (NKP RTAFB) in Thailand, also the home base of the QU-22 unit, the 554th Recon Squadron.