Definition of "gooney bird" []

• Any of several albatrosses, especially the black-footed albatross (Diomedea nigripes) and the Laysan albatross, that dwell primarily on islands in the Pacific Ocean, often near naval bases. (noun)
• A foolish, silly, or awkward person or thing; a goon. (noun)

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• "(Many of these visitors were the kind that usually traveled in the back end of a super gooney bird and got only close enough to the war effort to collect the same sixty-five dollars a month combat pay that the fighter pilots earned.)"
• "Local unit support fits into this picture and a great mass of people not assigned to the formal military airlift effort were involved in flying the original C-47 gooney bird or some more sophisticated model thereof."