Posted on 12/22/2005 3:03:30 PM PST by SandRat
PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo., Dec. 22, 2005 – The North American Aerospace Defense Command is observing its 50th anniversary of tracking Santa Claus on his annual rounds, NORAD officials said here. The tradition of tracking Santa began in 1955, when a local Sears, Roebuck and Co. store ran a newspaper ad urging children to make a phone call on Christmas Eve and talk to Santa Claus. As fate would have it, the phone number was misprinted and, instead of reaching Santa, youngsters found themselves talking with Air Force Col. Harry Shoup of the Continental Air Defense Command at Cheyenne Mountain.
Rather than hanging up, Shoup and his troops answered every child's call that night with a report of Santa's location. CONAD personnel kept up the practice until 1958, when NORAD was formed and took over Santa-tracking duties. NORAD has continued the Santa tracking tradition for several reasons, according to Air Force Master Sgt. John Tomassi, co-director of Santa-tracking operations.
"I think in the initial stages, back in the '50s and '60s, it was just a novelty kind of thing," he said. "A lot of people - children and their families - do this tracking Santa as a tradition in their family. We've recognized now that people have taken this program as a tradition, and what we can do is educate them.
"We do track Santa," he continued. "However, we do provide for the defense of the North American aerospace also. We use the satellites to track Santa, we use the radar, we use jet fighters, but all of those exact same things are what we use to monitor the aerospace of North America."
While youngsters are tracking Santa's flight, they may also learn a thing or two about the world around them, Tomassi said.
"We think of it as a geography lesson," said he explained, "because the different places that Santa visits or sightings that we have, a lot of people haven't heard of. If we can get some children to go and look at a map to find out where Timbuktu is, or where India is, or Pakistan, or wherever, then we feel all the better for that."
Last Christmas Eve, volunteers at Cheyenne Mountain answered nearly 55,000 phone calls and 35,000 e-mails from children around the world. During December 2004, the NORAD Tracks Santa Web site had 912 million hits from 181 countries. This year, about 500 volunteers - most of them U.S. and Canadian military personnel and their families - will report for telephone-answering duty on Christmas Eve. But already, youngsters are sending messages to Santa via the NORAD Tracks Santa Web site.
"E-mails are arriving from India and Ireland and all over the world already from children with their wish lists who want to talk to Santa," Tomassi said. "We receive, on average, 200 e-mails a day."
NORAD Tracks Santa volunteers will answer calls from 2 a.m. MST Dec. 24 to 2 a.m. MST Dec. 25 at (877) HiNORAD -- (877) 446-6723 -- toll-free in the United States; or at (719) 474-2111.
(Army Sgt. 1st Class Gail Braymen is assigned to North American Aerospace Defense Command public affairs.)
NORAD's spent 50 years tracking Santa' trek on Christmas Eve. Go to reply #1 to get a link to follow his travels on Christmas Eve with your children/grandchildren.
I spent some time in NORAD back in the early 80s. They look forward to this every year. :-)
scrooge.
GIs and Children a natural Mix, Trike Races in the CommCen on Christmas Eve. Had to make sure all the Trikes we put together to go under the tree were fully operational. The CG who stopped by to wish all of us a Merry Christmas, even joined in on the Quality Assurance Check Rides.
I remember, as a child in the early seventies, seeing a report on the news about an unidentified airborne object picked up NORAD's defense network. They showed the pilots being scrambled to their aircraft and "allowed" the viewers to listen to the aircraft to ground control transmissions while showing views from on-board cameras. When they reached the bogie, it was eight reindeer and sleigh carrying a large sack and being piolted by a large man in a red suit. It's one of those Christmas memories that I remember from back then....My daughter and I used to surf over to the NORAD site every year and watch Santas progress every year. It was the only way I could get her to go to sleep on Christmas eve.
I've enjoyed their efforts with my kids for the last five years. I also admit to believing in Santa Claus.
Thanks. :-) I still have friends who work in there today. Will pass this thread on to them.
I would have joined in as well. :-)
Thanks, SandRat! I'm setting up the site on MIL's computer on Christmas Eve so that the Grandkids can watch it.
One of the Uncles will play Santa, and we'll be in cellphone contact, so he can show up when the radar shows him in our area...that is, if it all falls together as it should, LOL!
He'll show up, either way. :)
And Merry Christmas to you and yours as well, my friend.
Rip and read.
Merry Christmas!
I didnt know Scrooge was a freeper
Ever work with Fair or Liza? I knew folks at both places. Never got to either of them myself though.
Give a clue. We were a MAC outfit, not SAC.
The Global Weather Central (GWC) Satellite command centers for the DMSP satellites were at Fairchild AFB (Fair) and Loring Maine (Liza) :-)
Both sites shipped data to the GWC at Offutt.
BTTT
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