When Bugs nicknames Sylvester the Dog as "John L.", he refers to "The Boston Strong Boy" John L. Sullivan, a Heavyweight Boxer famous in the late 19th Century.
The title is a parody of the United States' Air Force, though the air arm of the Army was not called the Air Force until the reorganization of the armed services in 1947.
Bugs sings snippets of "As Time Goes By", no doubt a nod to the popularity at the time of the film "Casablanca."
Sylvester's emotional scene after the snow effigy melts is likely based on Lenny from the 1939 film Of Mice and Men.
The dynamic of a character feeling guilty about their freezing adversary had earlier been seen in the 1941 Tom and Jerry short The Night Before Christmas, but with a much more sentimental ending.