Aarfy is the plump navigator in Yossarian's B-25, noted for being oblivious to incoming flak, getting lost on missions, and his omnipresent pipe.
Aarfy perceives himself as moral and protects well-connected women from the sexual advances of other officers, looking for any possibility of self-advance within society.
When Yossarian starts to convince Aarfy that he will have to pay for the rape and murder of Michaela, for the first time in the novel he loses his composure and shows fear.
He nearly gets himself and his comrades killed several times while getting lost on mission: Aarfy is so heedless of his own personal safety and the well-being of others that it always astounds him when they become angry at him.
The girls upstairs and the cameo woman – protects them from the sexual advances of the officers, not for his own pleasure, but because he sees them as women connected to important men who could help him out after the war.
He gives an example when he has done this before in his fraternity days: Toward the end of the novel, Aarfy rapes and murders a maid, Michaela, while on leave in Rome.
Other, more considerate members of the squadron suffer ignominious or horrible fates while he—merely oblivious and inconsiderate for most of the novel—faces no negative consequences even when his self-absorption drives him to murder.