Grandfather helps Air Force linebacker Charles cope

In the dining hall at the Air Force Academy Preparatory School, there is one place setting that never is used.

A chair leaned up against the table and a candle serve as a makeshift memorial for prisoners of war and soldiers missing in action.

For Nick Charles, it was a reminder never to give up.

Charles, a 6-foot-4, 285-pound sophomore guard, will make his 16th career start for Air Force on Saturday when the Falcons host service academy rival Army at 1:31 p.m. But he almost never got to the academy.

Two years ago, during his first semester at the prep school, Charles was homesick and tired of the difficult daily routine. He’d call his mother, Toni Needham, often, and tell her that he was thinking about quitting. “Like on a weekly basis,” Needham said.

Every time doubts crept into Charles’ head, so would thoughts of his grandfather. Luis Charles, now 70, served in the Army for 23 years, including several tours in Vietnam. During one of those tours, he was captured by enemy forces.

“Whenever there was a hard time, whether it was in basic training or football or school, I’d think about what he’s been through,” Charles said. “So I just kind of keep it all in perspective, and everything kind of slows down and becomes reasonable.”

Luis Charles grew up in the border town of Del Rio, Texas, and began working at age 13. He enlisted in the Army at 17. When he left the Army for good, he got his graduate equivalency degree, and later a bachelor of arts and his master’s. He became a social worker and counseled veterans.

In the Army he served with the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions and with a Special Forces unit when he was in Vietnam. His capture is something he does not talk about much.

“I’d like to just leave that alone, but I can tell you it’s hairy,” Luis Charles said. “Right now, just thinking about it, just remembering what happened, let me put it this way — it was very, very, very scary. Very scary.”

But Luis was happy to talk with his grandson and tell him the benefits he could get from sticking it out at the academy.

“I told him, ‘I’m not going to push you to do anything, it’s your decision, but if you need some advice I’ll be here,’” he said.

Nick Charles took advantage of that during the Thanksgiving and winter breaks of his year at the prep school. He went home to San Antonio and had long talks in the front yard with his grandfather.

“We just sat and he talked about how proud he was and that you can accomplish anything if you put your mind to it,” Charles said. “Nothing’s as hard as you want to make it.”

Charles, a business management major, is midway through his second year at the academy. He is on the commandant’s and dean’s lists and is an important member of the Falcons’ offensive line, which plows the way for the nation’s sixth-best rushing attack. He said he is loving his experience at the academy and he seemingly always has a smile on his face.

He couldn’t have done any of that without his grandfather.

“He’s my hero,” Charles said. “I couldn’t tell him I’m leaving this place. I couldn’t look him in the eye and tell him that. Compared to what he’s been through, this doesn’t compare.”