Smokey Stover who it is agreed by most 415th members gave the "foo fighters" their name. The phrase foo fighter, also taken from Holman's strip, was used by Allied aircraft pilots in World War II to describe various unidentified flying objects or mysterious aerial phenomena seen in the skies over both the European and Pacific Theaters of Operations. Though foo fighter initially described a type of UFO reported and named by the 415th Squadron, the term was also commonly used to mean any UFO sighting from that period. Foo Fighters is also the name of a rock band, first heard in 1995.
Smokey Stover freelance cartoons to magazines, (including "Colliers", "The Saturday Evening Post", "Life", "Judge" and "Everybody's Weekly".) He began "Smokey Stover" as a Sunday strip for the Chicago Tribune Syndicate on March 10, 1935. The daily strip began three years later on November 14, 1938. The title "Smokey Stover" derived from Holman's observation of an old smoking stove. Although no clear connection has ever been asserted, Holman's title and character name also could have been a nod toward the ubiquitous stationary engine manufactured by the Stover manufacturing and engine company of Freeport, Illinois. Between 1895 and 1942, it made over 270,000 engines