Flying Orchid was an honorary title basically for the secretaries and travel arrangers that booked their bosses on Delta. (Essentially, consider them as the ones who did the booking for the Flying Colonels, although the program grew larger than that).
Robert, sort of wrong here too. The original Flying Colonels (of which I was one) did not have to fly much (I flew more on AA and Eastern). They were those who did something for Delta (lots of HR or even company secretaries that did the booking). I had flown twice on them when I was made one by David Garrett.
As to the FO = Flying Orchids, This was in a recent issue of sky magazine.
For you history buffs, from delta archives:
ORDER OF THE FLYING ORCHIDS
Delta's Flying Orchid Program
A program designed to recognize women for their support of Delta and the
air transportation industry was adopted in 1960. The orchid had been
an important internal symbol at both C&S Airlines and Delta, so "Flying
Orchid" seemed a natural choice as a name for the program:
* C.E. Woolman, Delta's principal founder and first CEO, grew
orchids as a hobby. Over the years, many surprised company people, but
particularly secretaries, were the happy recipients of his orchids. An
orchid might acknowledge a birthday, a company anniversary or a job well
done.
This was also the time when all Delta flights dipped their wings when they flew over Monroe LA