Duane Sand

Duane Sand (born May 8, 1965) is a North Dakota politician, a graduate of the United States Naval Academy, and was a U.S. Navy officer during the Iraq War. Sand ran for the United States Senate in North Dakota on the Republican ticket in 2000 against incumbent Kent Conrad of the Democratic-Nonpartisan League, and was called for duty after the election in 2001. Upon returning, he ran for North Dakota's lone House seat in 2004 and 2008, but failed both times to defeat incumbent Earl Pomeroy. In August 2011, Sand announced his bid to become the 2012 Republican nominee for the same Senate seat he ran for 11 years prior. He lost the Republican nomination to Representative Rick Berg. Sand previously served as the North and South Dakota Director for Americans for Prosperity, a conservative political advocacy group.

Plane crash
On June 4, 2008, Sand was piloting his personal airplane, a Cessna 172, on a flight from Bismarck, North Dakota to Fargo, North Dakota. At approximately 11:00 a.m. CDT, the plane experienced engine problems, and Sand was forced to land in a corn field near the small town of Nortonville, North Dakota, which is located about twenty-six miles south of Jamestown, North Dakota. According to the North Dakota Highway Patrol, the plane came down in the corn field's soft soil, bounced, flipped forward and landed upside down. Sand was buckled into the pilot's seat, but was out of the aircraft before emergency responders arrived. He was evaluated by medical personnel at the site of the crash and in Edgeley, North Dakota. Reports the following day indicated that Sand received a small cut on his forehead along with several bruises, but was otherwise uninjured in the accident.

Military service
After graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1990, Sand went on to serve as a submarine officer in the United States Navy. He served on three different nuclear submarines, eventually achieving the rank of lieutenant commander. Sand was discharged from active duty in 1999, but then after the 9/11 attacks, he was recalled to serve as Navigation and Operations Officer aboard the USS Florida (SSBN-728) and also spent time serving at The Pentagon. Later, he was deployed to the Persian Gulf in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Now retired from active duty, Sand currently serves as the Commander of the Submarine Veterans of North Dakota and has been attempting to raise money to send veterans to the commissioning of the new nuclear-powered submarine USS North Dakota (SSN-784).