The Nomads are a fairly old squad, started in AW among a bunch of gents that didn't take themselves too seriously and liked to fly together. We were primarily a P38 squad at that time, but it was mostly because the majority of the gents were good at it when they joined up.
From what +Tiff/Slack has told me the Nomads were a P40 squad in Africa, that orginally flew them off of a CV deck to ferry them to the fields.
As for me? I fly a double engine P40.

As for reducing the 'honor' of the real squads- if you fly with a sense of fair play, treat the other gents in the game with respect, and remember what your fore-fathers have done- how can you disrespect the original flyers?
I work in a hospital and I told a B17 pilot that had been admitted for end stage prostate cancer with 'mets' to the bone about Airwarrior. He was unimpressed, remarking (paraphrase) 'We lost good guys so this generation could make fun of it?'
It got me thinking and we continued to talk. He was deeply impressed by the scenarios and I'd often bring in screen shots of the scenario we were doing at the time. I'd tell him what happened while he sat there, staring at the pictures, with an alternating smile/introspective look on his face. From his expression, I know he felt alot more relieved that no one's sacrifice was being forgotten by these scenarios.