paddlefoot

plural paddlefeet

1. slangaeronauticsA member of the groundcrew.

   The day after Tommy quit, a paddlefoot soldier on the base made a disparaging remark about Tommy to Sorrow Sorrel, the tail gunner, and Sorrow beat the living hell out of the paddlefoot.

   1944, Oram C. Hutton, Andrew A. Rooney, Air Gunner, page 116

   1 more example

   He was a paddlefoot undeniably, and it seemed that I might have spared myself any worry about a hero's death. Still, I could never quite get rid of the lurking notion that he was marked for sudden and outlandish extinction.

   1968, MacKinlay Kantor, The Day I Met a Lion, page 34