As chief of the mission planning cell for the 5th Bomb Wing out of Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, Major Kris Perry deployed in February 2003 to the Royal Air Force (RAF) Base at Fairford, England, as part of an advanced detachment to establish a forward operating base for 16 to 18 B-52 bombers that would be principally supporting special operations forces fighting with the Kurds in northern Iraq. Apart from dealing with civilian infiltrators at RAF Fairford who were opposed to US/British military action and who represented a threat to coalition aircraft, Perry dealt intimately with other serious political issues as well, such as negotiating and obtaining European overflight rights for American B-52s on their way to the Middle East. "It's one of the greatest accomplishments I have ever witnessed or been a part of," Perry said: "the fact that we were able to convince nations and work with other countries behind the scenes to allow armed B-52, Cold War-era nuclear bombers to overfly Eastern European nations, going to a war that was not publicly supported by the governments of many of those nations, yet they granted clearance to us. It shows that what's sometimes done in public isn't always what's truly going on behind the scenes." Once hostilities commenced, Perry's planning cell "produced all the route maps, targeting data, and all information the air crews needed to conduct their missions, from the time they walked out the door until the time they returned from their flight. This also included frequencies, instructions on how to employ weapons, rules of engagement information, and any sort of airspace control measures they would have to deal with." Discussing the "vitally important" Anglo-American relationship, Perry also tells what he terms "an incredible story of coordination, flexibility, changes at the last minute and accepting the political constraints placed on us by some of our friends not allowing us to do some of the things we wanted to do. It was a realistic environment of what we can expect in the future," he added. "My hat's off to all the people who made it all happen in England and the professional fighting men and women who made it happen in northern Iraq."

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