Flyboys was a generic term for aircrew. You might hear it used when you went
into a cafe in your uniform and sat down at the counter. The waitress, handing
you a menu, would say, "Hiya, flyboy!"
Or you might be at a train station trying to get transportation and the ticket
booth guy might turn to somebody and say, "Hey, I got a bunch of flyboys here
who need to get to Greenville."
No offense intended or implied.
The term is beaten into the ground in the book.
Just for the hell of it, I looked in a dictionary of slang to see if the term
is there. It is. The entry says, in part, "An aviator, esp. a glamorous,
heroic or daring aviator. In WWII usu. used ironically. Now derog., implying
snobbishness, youth and cautiousness."


Chris Mark