I read with interest Suzanne Anderson’s column “Walking Our Faith: The world’s toughest race” on Fiji and the Fiji islanders. My squadron, the 70th Fighter 13th Air Force, was stationed there during World War II. I thought your readers might enjoy the following:

My squadron colonel got the idea of having a joint exercise with the Fiji islanders. On a certain night, they were to infiltrate our airbases, and we would try to stop them from penetrating our perimeter. They were given chalk to mark anything they could. 

The night passed and not a hair nor hide was seen of them. Apparently they didn’t understand the importance of the war game exercise. We had gone to the extra effort to beef up guards on duty during the night, and the islanders didn’t show. 

So the next morning, we woke to discover all our tents, vehicles and pieces of equipment marked with an X, and the stars and stripes were upside down on the flag pole. 

We were glad we weren’t fighting those guys.