Rhuby Responds: As to "Brown shoes" - in the UK, the first military aviators were army officers, with khaki uniform and brown shoes. I believe it was the same in the USA ... Did the USAAF fly from naval ships for a while, before the Naval air forces were formed? This would account a term for the strangely uniformed fellows mixed in with the blue-uniformed navy people.

Shoe color varied depending on the uniform worn. Petty officers and below invariably wore black shoes, regardless of rating. Chief petty officers wore brown or black depending on the uniform. There was a blue uniform and a khaki uniform. Officers had dress whites which took white shoes but they also had the blue and khaki uniforms which took black and brown shoes respectively. Your suggestion that the name may derive from WWII Army Air Force personnel sounds as good as anything else I have heard, but I couldn't confirm or deny the existence of Army fliers on Naval ships.