Duane Sand (born May 8, 1965) is a Navy Captain, businessman and a North Dakota politician. He is a graduate of the

United States Naval Academy The United States Naval Academy (US Naval Academy, USNA, or Navy) is a federal service academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was established on 10 October 1845 during the tenure of George Bancroft as Secretary of the Navy. The Naval Academy ...

, and was a

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...

officer during the

Iraq War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق ( Kurdish) , partof = the Iraq conflict and the War on terror , image ...

. Sand ran for the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

in North Dakota on the

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

ticket in 2000 against

incumbent The incumbent is the current holder of an office or position, usually in relation to an election. In an election for president, the incumbent is the person holding or acting in the office of president before the election, whether seeking re-ele ...

Kent Conrad Gaylord Kent Conrad (born March 12, 1948) is a former American politician who was a United States Senator from North Dakota. He is a member of the North Dakota Democratic-NPL Party, the North Dakota affiliate of the Democratic Party. First elec ...

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 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

, but failed both times to defeat incumbent

Earl Pomeroy Earl Ralph Pomeroy III (born September 2, 1952) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the U.S. representative for from 1993 to 2011. He is a member of the North Dakota Democratic-NPL Party. He currently serves as Senior Counsel fo ...

. In August 2011, Sand announced his bid to become the

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...

Republican nominee for the same Senate seat he ran for 11 years prior. He lost the Republican nomination to Representative

Rick Berg Rick may refer to: People *Rick (given name), a list of people with the given name *Alan Rick (born 1976), Brazilian politician, journalist, pastor and television personality *Johannes Rick (1869–1946), Austrian-born Brazilian priest and mycol ...

. Sand previously served as the North and South Dakota Director for

Americans for Prosperity Americans for Prosperity (AFP), founded in 2004, is a libertarian conservative political advocacy group in the United States funded by Charles Koch and formerly his brother David. As the Koch brothers' primary political advocacy group, it is one ...

, a conservative political advocacy group.

Plane crash

On June 4, 2008, Sand was piloting his personal airplane, a

Cessna 172 The Cessna 172 Skyhawk is an American four-seat, single-engine, high wing, fixed-wing aircraft made by the Cessna Aircraft Company.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 Edgeley is a city in LaMoure County, North Dakota, United States. The population was 585 at the 2020 census. History Edgeley was founded in 1886 by Richard Sykes, a landowner from England who named it after Edgeley, Cheshire, where he was born ...

. 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 submarine A nuclear submarine is a submarine powered by a nuclear reactor, but not necessarily nuclear-armed. Nuclear submarines have considerable performance advantages over "conventional" (typically diesel-electric) submarines. Nuclear propulsion, ...

s, eventually achieving the rank of

lieutenant commander Lieutenant commander (also hyphenated lieutenant-commander and abbreviated Lt Cdr, LtCdr. or LCDR) is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander. The corresponding ran ...

. Sand was discharged from active duty in 1999, but then after the

9/11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerci ...

, he was recalled to serve as Navigation and Operations Officer aboard the and also spent time serving at

The Pentagon The Pentagon is the headquarters building of the United States Department of Defense. It was constructed on an accelerated schedule during World War II. As a symbol of the U.S. military, the phrase ''The Pentagon'' is often used as a meton ...

. Later, he was deployed to the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a mediterranean sea in Western Asia. The bod ...

in support of the

. 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 .

Business career

As a businessman, Sand has developed a number of properties - including homes, a hotel, a restaurant and apartment buildings. Currently, he serves as president and CEO of North Star Water and Whitehorse Water, an oilfield water services company, which mostly provide water resources for oilfield frack jobs.

Politics

A former inspector for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Sand advocates for nuclear energy and establishing nuclear power facilities in North Dakota. On April 9, 2018, Sand filed papers to run in the June 12 Republican primary for State House in District 47, which is mostly suburban north Bismarck. Sand lost that primary to incumbent representatives George Keiser and Larry Klemin in a campaign that included accusations of misstatements and smears. Keiser later filed a police report that accused Sand of violating the North Dakota Corrupt Practices Act with an advertisement misstating his opponent's vote. In response, Sand also filed a police report that accused Keiser of also misstating his voting record in political advertising.

References

External links