Pearl Harbor survivor Bill Temple, 92, of Virginia Beach, has strong Mathews and Gloucester connections. His mother, Alice Hudgins Temple, was born and raised in Diggs, and Temple spent many weekends and summers in Diggs, visiting his aunt Edith Forrest and her daughter, Toots Forrest Morgan. His extended family also includes Nelda Gibbs of Moon, Bailey Diggs of Diggs, Bill Hudgins of Hudgins GMC, and many others.

"My parents told me if I ever came to Mathews not to throw any rocks because I’d be hitting a cousin," said Temple during a recent visit with Nelda Gibbs and her husband, Stuart.

Temple was a student in Norfolk in 1939 when, at the age of 20, he decided to enlist in the U.S. Army Air Corps. He said he took his final semester exam in chemical engineering, then went home and told his father, "I’m wasting my time and your money; I want to fly."

Temple was sent to Hawaii, where he went through basic training, then rapidly climbed the ladder...