UNITED STATES AIR FORCE ACADEMY — The mules are locked down. The goats are in an undisclosed location. With the Army-Navy football game coming up this Saturday, West Point and Annapolis are at Threat Level Red — for their mascots.

A sometimes comical, sometimes violent mascot-snatching war has been raging for generations among the Army, Navy and Air Force academies, with cadets scheming to kidnap their rivals’ animals by subterfuge or brute force and then parade them in taunting triumph before big games.

Over the years, tighter security for the mascots has only made the raiders bolder, and the missions more elaborate, with months of preparation, choreographed assault teams, and sometimes even military aircraft.

Military leaders nearly always condemn the pranks, but that hasn’t put a stop to them. Just last month, Aurora, a glacier-white gyrfalcon and mascot of the Air Force Academy, was abducted in the middle of the night, and nearly met a tragic end.