On the anniversary of the most heinous attack in our history and as we faced Air Force on Saturday, I wanted to pay tribute to the young cadets entrusted with our nation's safety, including my young 18-year-old first cousin, Sione Tufui, a freshman plebe and only Tongan among the uniformed thousands who cheered against BYU.
Sione and his fellow cadets will get a pass this time.
Sione scored 32 on the ACT and 1940 on the SAT and took enough Advanced Placement classes and even some at his local community college, that had he opted for BYU, he would have had enough credits to enter as a junior. He passed on appointments to West Point and Annapolis, in part because he felt he might have a better family life in the Air Force than the Army or Navy. He is studying to be a mechanical engineer in the bio-medical field.
Kid's a genius. Absolute stud.
Sione will leave on his mission with the other 30 LDS young men in his class of 1,300 following their freshman year, as 25 of last year's class did and many before them have. Some may opt to leave after their sophomore year, but if they leave for a mission, they must do so before their junior year or they're required to serve active duty to repay the government's financial investment in them — approximately $400,000 per cadet over four years.
The LDS plebes who will resign their commissions to serve missions will all apply by January, though they can't leave until July, during a very narrow window of three weeks between a mandatory tour on a base of the Air Forces' choosing and basic training. The academies have a good working relationship with the LDS Church in getting them into the MTC and the mission field in a very specific time so as not to disrupt their curriculum.
If you knew Sione, you would feel safer, as I do, knowing he's sworn an oath to protect us from our enemies, domestic and foreign. He's 6-foot-1 and 220 pounds of twisted steel; an all-league selection in southern California as a linebacker and a power hitting first baseman. He's movie star handsome as the product of a Tongan father and American mother.
He called my uncle this morning excited that Coach (Bronco) Mendenhall came to the campus chapel last night with two of his players and spoke to the 80-90 LDS cadets at the Academy. He was just as thrilled that the two BYU players who accompanied Bronco were Tongans, but his father forgot to ask who they were.
Sione was just excited to see a couple of brown faces.
If you aren't aware or haven't seen the video of BYU's tribute to the cadets at last year's game, you owe it to yourself to do so. (A link is included on this blog at deseretnews.com.)
Athletic director Tom Holmoe told me it was actually Ohio State's idea when it opened last year against Navy. Ohio State made a similar video that was so well received by its student body and alumni the school passed the idea along to others who were on all of the academies' schedules. For whatever reason, apparently only BYU followed Ohio State's lead.
I didn't know of it but a close friend and colleague, a long-time Philadelphia TV reporter named Bill Baldini, who is an Air Force veteran, sent me the link with a note that said he learned that the commanding officer at the Academy had it played for all the cadets during a campus pep rally.
Sione, we salute you as a family, as fellow Latter-day Saints and as a country for all that you and your fellow cadets sacrifice on our behalf.
This must be how Archie Manning feels when the Colts play the Giants.
Vai Sikahema's blog can be found at deseretnews.com/sports