Perry Kerr was born in Texas in 1925. He grew up during the Depression [Annotator's Note: Great Depression; a global economic depression that lasted through the 1930s] when times were hard. His family lived on a farm. He had to walk three miles to school. After his third year of high school, he joined the Army Air Corps reserves for pilot training. Four days after his 18th birthday, he was called up. He was sent to college in Oklahoma for a four-year equivalency course. He went into the cadets, but washed out because he could not do the math. He then went to gunnery school and did armament training and then carried them in aircraft. Then he went on to overseas training. He took the northern route to England. They left the new airplane they flew over in and had to take whatever airplane was available for them. He received his training for flying missions in England. Kerr was in charge of dropping the bombs. He was in the nose turret. They did not have their own bombardier. They completed 12 missions, but only got credit for 11 missions. When they went to Norway, they did not want to bomb civilians so they brought the bombs back. When they landed, a tire blew out. They had to take the firetruck to debrief. They did not get credit for that mission because they did not drop the bombs, experience flak, or get fired upon by fighters. They flew that mission in a B-24 [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber]. They flew missions all over Germany. Their last mission was to Salzburg, Germany where he saw a plane get shot down. The war ended in Germany after that. They had to bring nine extra men to the United States. They were going to be retrained for the Pacific Theatre. Before that was done, the atomic bombs were dropped [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945]. He was honorably discharged. He had a brother in the Marines who fought at Okinawa [Annotator’s Note: the Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg, 1 April to 22 June 1945; Okinawa, Japan]. His other brother was in the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. All three of them made it through the war alright.

Perry Kerr was deployed to England in February 1945. They were constantly flying training missions before they started carrying bombs. It took a month to finish the training. They had 200 to 300 airplanes flying in formation. They had a good navigator. They had to make their last four missions with a spare navigator. They were briefed for their first mission. They were going to carry eight one- thousand bombs on board. The Germans fired flak [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire] at them. They had flak suits piled on the floor. They were going to hit submarines and destroyers. They did not know how they did because the clouds were too thick. On their last mission on 21 April 1945, they had a German jet come in. He did not fire a shot at them. The tail gunner was scared to death. The Mustangs [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft] cut across and shot the German pilot down. Kerr was the nose gunner. He got credit for 11 of the 12 missions he flew on. They flew a mission into France. In 2014, he received a French Medal of Honor [Annotator’s Note: the French Legion of Honor medal] for that mission. That was his last mission. They had briefed them on the fact that they did not want them to drop bombs this late in the war. Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] committed suicide and the Germans started to surrender. The most they would fly was three missions in a row, then they would get at least a week off. They would go to town and drink at the pubs. On VE-Day [Annotator's Note: Victory in Europe Day, 8 May 1945], Kerr was in England on the airbase. They slipped out the back gate and went to one of the pubs where they had a few too many beers. They did not want them to mix with the English people. On the mission to Norway, they were told not to drop the bombs. When they returned, they blew the right main gear before they touched the runway.

Perry Kerr describes his crew members. He traded with the nose gunner, and ended up being the new nose gunner because the original nose gunner was too big to fit in there. If they had to bail out, they would have to go through the nose hatch. He wanted to fly. He wanted to be a pilot, but he struggled with the mathematics involved. He was called up five days after he turned 18 years old. He went to gunnery school in Florida. They could swim in the water after they finished for the day. He was a corporal when he finished gunnery school. His final rank was staff sergeant. He went to work on road construction [Annotator’s Note: after Kerr returned home], then he went to work in the oil fields of Texas. He retired at 71 years old. He felt like he had to serve his country and he was patriotic. He does not think young people today have respect or love for their country. They felt like it was an honor to serve their country.