COLUMBUS, Miss. - The community celebrated a historical day in the renaming of the Columbus-Lowndes County Airport terminal. It is now dedicated to the late Lt. Col. Alva Temple, who was from Columbus and a highly decorated Tuskegee Airman. Temple served for 20 years and flew 120 missions for the AF in the P-50 Mustang. Temple and his all-African American 332nd flight crew won the inaugural ‘Top Gun’ competition in 1949. Temple's youngest granddaughter, Angie Billups Washington, says he didn’t like the spotlight. "(H)e was so modest he would just be in the background, trying to fade in the woodwork.” It wasn't about the accolades and fanfare for him, she continued. "He was really a person who wanted to do his job, and it shows through his accomplishments.” The Tuskegee Airmen were monumental in the fight for desegregation. (WTVA 04/28/23) The Columbus-Lowndes County Airport named terminal after local Tuskegee Airman | News | wtva.com
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