For Air Force players, survival is more than football

For North Dakota State football players, Air Force’s Mountain West Conference opener isn’t the only test of preparation. The article focuses on how NDSU’s move to playing a military school again this season elevates life-off-the-field challenges, building on last year’s nonconference game at The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina. Air Force’s SEER (Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape) training spans nine days at Pinon Canyon, a remote 235,000-acre facility in southeastern Colorado. Players described limited food—three meals over eight days—while learning survival tasks such as making water drinkable and avoiding capture. Luke Vonderhaar compared the experience to extreme conditions and said rattlesnake tasted “like chicken,” while Liam Szarka linked the survival team concept to football and fighter squadron life.