1. Alva Temple was one of the 1007 documented Tuskegee Airmen Pilots.
11 Facts About Alva Temple
1. 2.
Alva Temple was born on September 5,1917, in rural Carrollton, Alabama in Pickens County.
3.
Alva Temple was married to Lucille Grimes Alva Temple for nearly 60 years.
4.
Once the USAAF created the Tuskegee Pilot Cadet program in Tuskegee, Alabama, Alva Temple applied and was admitted.
5.
On July 28,1943, Alva Temple graduated from Tuskegee's Class 43-G-SE, receiving his pilot wings and commission as a 2nd Lieutenant.
6.
Alva Temple was immediately assigned to the 332nd Fighter Group's 99th Pursuit Squadron.
7.
Alva Temple flew a Red-Tailed P-40 and a P-51 Mustang, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross.
8.
Alva Temple served 20 years in the military, in the United States Army Air Forces and the United States Air Force, retiring in 1962 as a lieutenant colonel.
9.
Four months later, in May 1949, Alva Temple joined the 332nd Fighter Group Weapons three-member pilot team to compete at the USAF's inaugural "Top Gun" team competition held at the Las Vegas Air Force Base.
10.
Alva Temple served seven years as the commissioner for the Mississippi State Department of Natural Resources Committee.
11.
Alva Temple is interred at the Cook-Temple Memorial Cemetery in Pickensville, Alabama.